Our Crisis Seen Historically: A Thoughtful Analysis of "Legitimate" Government

THE PRINCIPLES OF POWER. By Guglielmo Ferrero. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. $3.50

The Principles of Power is a political analysis of the history of continental Europe during the last one hundred and fifty years in terms of the theory of “legitimacy.”

In his previous book, The Reconstruction of Europe, Professor Ferrero described how the principle of legitimacy was applied by Talleyrand at the Congress of Vienna. Whether the Minister of Louis XVIII was conscious of the possibility of transforming his somewhat opportunistic remarks on legitimacy into the elaborate and far-reaching system of political philosophy developed by Professor Ferrero may not be important. What is important is that the theory of legitimacy came as a portentous revelation to the Italian historian when he was forty-seven years old, and that he made it the clew to the past, present, and future history of the Western world, as well as the crowning achievement of a life ol penetrating research and anxious political struggle.

“Fear,” writes Professor Ferrero, “is the soul of the living universe.” Animals and men are animated by the urge to avoid danger. “But man is not only afraid of real and imaginary danger; he is frightened of his own power to frighten others.” This is why, in an organized society, the primary function of government is to protect people against “the two greatest fears of mankind —anarchy and war.”

But government implies authority, and authority means the possible use of force. Thus a government “frightens its subjects and is alraid of them, because rebellion against authority is always possible. There is reciprocal fear between government and the governed, and the whole process of civilization has been an attempt either to minimize this fear or to eliminate it.

How can this be done? According to Professor Ferrero, there is only one way: through a “legitimate” government — that is, one the authority of which is freely recognized by the people, because time, custom, and general consent have sanctioned its principles. A government which must use force to maintain itself is “illegitimate.” It is dominated by dread, however strong it may appear. Such was the case of Napoleon, prototype of all modern dictators, who had to crush opposition in France because he was afraid of it, and who had to attack all the nations of Europe, however strong or however weak, because he saw in each of them a potential enemy.

Professor Ferrero has chosen the history of France from 1789 to the present day to show the dramatic struggle between the two principles of government which have found application in Western Europe: Monarchy and Democracy. The various regimes which succeeded one another in France during the nineteenth century, he believes, furnish an exhaustive illustration of his complex theory. The American reader, not thoroughly familiar with this period of French history, may find some difficulty in accepting blindfolded, so to speak, Professor berrero s judgments of men and events.

The main deficiency of this very important book is that it lacks the universality which this “global” war renders more and more imperative as a guide to those who think in terms of the future. It requires a good deal of effort to project Professor Ferrero’s brilliant and stimulating ideas beyond the limits of the Old World.

His conclusions, however, are without restrictions in their application, and the way he presents them is impressive and thoroughly original. Although Democracy has not become “legitimate” everywhere (far from it!), says Professor Ferrero, there is no doubt as to its ultimate triumph. The Russian Revolution appears to him as a consequence and also as a counterpart of the French Revolution. “As for the other revolutions that shook Europe after the Russian Revolution,” concludes Professor Ferrero — and I presume he alludes to the Fascist and Nazi Revolutions — “there is nothing to expect from them. They are the consequence of the decay of the monarchic legitimacy. . . . They will only result in interminable wars.”

May Professor Ferrero be right in his Olympian scorn for Hitler and Mussolini, and wrong in his prophecy concerning the result of their insignificance. But whether one agrees or not with Professor Ferrero’s basic theory, The Principles of Power is an exceptional book which throws new light on the most obscure aspects of the present historical crisis.

RAOUL DE ROUSSY HE SALES