Is democracy sustainable without informed, virtuous, and engaged citizens? Can political institutions shape the kind of citizenry democracy needs? These questions lie at the heart of Democracy Tamed: French Liberalism and the Politics of Suffrage, the compelling new book by political theorist Gianna Englert, who joins us in this episode of RevDem. As contemporary anxieties grow over the future of liberal democracy and the rise of populism, Englert turns our attention to 19th-century France, where liberal thinkers grappled with similar dilemmas in the wake of the French Revolution.
Englert reconstructs how a generation of French liberals—including Benjamin Constant, François Guizot, Alexis de Tocqueville, Édouard Laboulaye, and Ernest Duvergier de Hauranne—sought to chart a path toward democratic inclusion that did not compromise their liberal commitments to individual freedom, institutional stability, and rational governance. Central to their efforts was the idea of political capacity: the belief that suffrage should be tied to a citizen’s ability to exercise it responsibly. Englert argues that political capacity emerged as a flexible and evolving standard—shaped by France’s shifting social and economic realities—which enabled liberals to reconcile democratic expansion with their core political principles.
In our conversation, Englert reflects on the transnational influences that shaped this capacitarian discourse, the moral and educational ambitions of liberal reformers, and the ongoing relevance of their ideas in an age of democratic uncertainty. Tune in for a rich exploration of a forgotten liberal tradition that still speaks to the challenges confronting democracy today.
Gianna Englert is Associate Professor of Humanities in the Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida. She holds a Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University. Her research is in the histories of liberalism and democracy, with particular attention to themes of citizenship, suffrage, and political economy. Her published work has appeared in History of Political Thought, Modern Intellectual History, Political Theory, Polity, The Review of Politics, and The Tocqueville Review, among other outlets. Her book, Democracy Tamed: French Liberalism and the Politics of Suffrage was published by Oxford University Press in 2024.
The interview was conducted by Alexandra Medzibrodszky. Lilit Hakobyan edited the audio file.
