Ellen: Spreading and Stopping the French Revolution

The Enlightenment ideologies that sparked the French Revolution have clearly had an enormous impact on world history. Central to this revolution and many others is the concept of the rights of man. The French Declaration of the Rights of Man outlines these rights mainly to be "liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression." The American Declaration of Independence outlines these rights to be "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." And finally, the Haitian Constitution states that "The Constitution guarantees freedom and individual security...[and] Property is sacred and inviolable." The parallels between these three documents show how there are fundamental beliefs that almost all humans values, and these are essentially the basis for democracy. Regardless of the nationality, the oppressed people want a voice in their government, which ties back to the discussion in-class on Tuesday. I do not believe that democracy can be exported because, in a way, it is a naturally occurring process. People can only be oppressed for so long before they rise up to overthrow the political system. The British and the French governments both tried to suppress the democratic rebellions, but, in these cases, the governments failed. So I do not believe democracy can be exported because everyone has the power to bring democracy to a nation on their own without external forces. Obviously, with more advanced militaries, political alliances and globalization, this is not always the case, but in an ideal world, democracy cannot be exported.