Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité: did the French Revolution come up with the most successful political formula in modern times? Since then, every poli...
Historian Yuval Noah Harari argues that the French Revolution's formula of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité remains the most successful political formula in modern times, stating that every political system that has tried to abandon one of these three principles has ultimately failed.
Background
- Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli historian and bestselling author of *Sapiens*, *Homo Deus*, and *Nexus*, known for big-picture arguments about human societies and technology.
- Ezra Klein is a prominent American journalist, *New York Times* columnist, and host of *The Ezra Klein Show* podcast, which explores political ideas and policy.
- The post argues that "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité" (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) — the slogan of the French Revolution (1789–1799) — remains the most durable political formula. Harari's claim: any modern system that drops one of these three ideals (e.g., communism abandoned liberty, fascism abandoned equality, pure libertarianism abandoned fraternity/solidarity) eventually fails or becomes unstable.
- This is part of a broader ongoing conversation about the ideological foundations of liberalism and democracy, especially relevant as many commenters debate whether tech-driven surveillance, populism, or authoritarian capitalism are undermining these values today.