The French have long self-identified as champions of universal emancipation, yet the republicanism they adopted has often been faulted for being exclusionary – of women, foreigners, and religious and ethnic minorities. Can republicanism be an attractive alternative to liberalism, communism, and communitarianism, or is it fundamentally flawed? Sharing Freedom traces the development of republicanism from an older elitist theory of freedom into an inclusive theory of emancipation during the French Revolution. It uncovers the theoretical innovations of Rousseau and of revolutionaries such as Sieyès, Robespierre, Condorcet, and Grouchy. We learn how they struggled to adapt republicanism to the new circumstances of a large and diverse France, full of poor and dependent individuals with little education or experience of freedom. Analysing the argumentative logic that led republicans to justify the exclusion of many, this book renews the republican tradition and connects it with the enduring issues of colonialism, immigration, slavery, poverty and gender.

‘An excellent piece of scholarship that breaks new ground in several areas of importance for political theory and intellectual history. Rousselière shows that French republicanism in the Revolutionary period had many faces, but that running through them all was an ideal of ‘sharing freedom’ which contained paradoxes that continue to plague French politics and society today, from the problem of the banlieues to conflicts around the principle of laïcité. A vital resource for scholars of republicanism, of freedom, of the French Revolution, of Rousseau, and of contemporary French politics, among other things.’

Sharon R. Krause - William R. Kenan, Jr. University Professor of Political Science, Brown University

‘Republicanism began as a theory of freedom for an educated, virtuous social elite. During the French Revolution, republican writers tried to democratize the theory in various ways. Rousselière explores key moments in the history of these efforts with subtlety and insight, and shows that they were only partly successful. Her book offers a strikingly new account of the republican tradition and helps to explain why it continues to grapple with the question of exclusion.’

Bryan Garsten - Professor of Political Science and Humanities, Yale University