The Rights of Man: Promise and Paradox
- Owen Whines
- Aug 26
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 28
A Day in History - 26th August 1789
Accepted on 26 August 1789, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (French: Déclaration des droits de l'Homme et du citoyen de 1789) was one of the most important texts of the French Revolution. Drafted in the wake of the fall of the Bastille, It dismantled the privileges of the Old Regime, under which the king had been the sole initiator of laws and the source of justice. Influenced by n Enlightenment philosophy and the stimulus of the American Revolution, the National Assembly sought to redefine French society around the principles of equality, popular sovereignty, and individual rights. Its opening claim that 'men are born and remain free and equal in rights' (Article I) set the tone for a document that aspired to universalise civic equality while also safeguarding the interests of the propertied classes.
The Declaration laid out a clear statement of revolutionary principles. Article II defined 'the natural and imprescriptible rights of man' as 'liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression,' while Article VI asserted that 'the law is the expression of the general will,' making all citizens equal before it and equally eligible for public office 'according to their capacity'. Articles X and XI guaranteed freedom of opinion, religion, and expression, provided that their manifestation did not trouble ‘public order’. Property was elevated as the cornerstone of the new order: Article XVII declared it “inviolable and sacred,” permissible to seize only for public necessity and with fair compensation.
At the same time, the Declaration’s insistence on national sovereignty contained its own risks. Article III proclaimed that 'the source of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation'. While this rejected monarchy, it also concentrated authority in a representative assembly that was not easily restrained. The Assembly’s sovereignty was 'unrestricted and complete,' raising the possibility that rights could be overridden by the general will. What was presented as liberation from absolutism could thus take on the form of a new absolutism, in which collective authority eclipsed individual liberty.
As such. the Declaration was never universally applied. The deputies established a distinction between active and passive citizens, effectively restricting political rights to a minority. Under the October 1989 decree, only French men over 25, who paid direct taxes equal to three days’ wages, qualified as active citizens. This reduced the electorate to around 4.3 million men out of a population of 29 million, excluding women, servants, the poor, enslaved people, and foreigners. The deputies believed that only those with material independence could exercise political judgment responsibly, effectively tying political participation to property ownership. Critics quickly attacked this compromise. Maximilien de Robespierre condemned the distinction as a betrayal of equality, advocating that 'sovereignty resides in all the people' and 'therefore each individual has the right to participate in making the law which governs him'. The Declaration, therefore, exposed the Revolution’s paradox — proclaiming universal equality while embedding social and economic exclusions.
The legacy of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen lies in both its achievements and its limitations. It represented a decisive rejection of hereditary privilege and absolute monarchy. At the same time, its exclusions highlighted the limits of eighteenth-century universalism. Olympe de Gouges, in her Declaration of the Rights of Woman (1791), directly confronted its silence on gender equality, while revolutionary clubs pressed for a broader franchise. Despite these contradictions, the Declaration became one of the most influential texts in modern history, shaping French constitutional development and providing a model for later rights documents worldwide.
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