Alle origini della dicotomia tra libertà degli antichi e libertà dei moderni: Madame de Staël su democrazia, governo rappresentativo e proprietà privata

As is well known, the authorship of one of the most famous dichotomies in political thought, the liberty of the ancients compared with that of the moderns, is generally attributed to Benjamin Constant. However, the enormous debt he owes to his friend, collaborator and lover, Madame de Staël, is not always emphasized: in fact, the first sketch of this fortunate distinction can be found in two of Staël's works: Réflexions sur la paix intérieure (1795) and, above all, Des circonstances actuelles qui peuvent terminer la Révolution et des principes qui doivent fonder la République en France (1798). The origin of this fortunate distinction must therefore be contextualized during the period of the Directory Republic: in both writings, Madame de Staël's theoretical need to embrace the principles of republicanism (after having been a monarchist for a long time), while opposing the Jacobin conception of democracy – to which she contrasts the idea of representative government and that one of census suffrage – create the prerequisites for the focus on the two different types of freedom. This theory has a strong liberal value, because it is closely linked to the idea that property is the foundation of modern society.