International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2023

 

Fatal Friendships: The Politics of Jacobin Friendship

(Abstract)

 

Marisa Linton

 

Instead of regarding friendship as confined to the private sphere, this article explores its role in the public sphere of politics. Friendship was an intensely problematic term for the Jacobins, but it played a notable part in their political practice. This article argues that the Jacobins idealized friendship as a form of natural virtue yet simultaneously rejected it as symptomatic of an ancient regime style of politics as patronage, corruption, and cronyism. Revolutionary politicians who gave administrative posts to personal friends risked contravening the ideology of political virtue, whereby there should be no special favors toward particular citizens. As the political situation grew increasingly tense, friendship became increasingly suspect - and could be seen as redolent of factionalism and even conspiracy. The article explores how this uneasiness and ambiguity about friendship in political life impacted on two factions in the Jacobin Club: the Girondins and the Robespierrists.