An Introduction to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France.

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A Macat Analysis of Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. Reflections on the Revolution in France is a pamphlet that does more than just reflect on one of the most important events in history.

It fiercely opposes it. Written by the Irish politician Edmund Burke in 1790, just a year after the revolution began, it is a critique of the dangers of radical political change.

Burke set out to prove that the French Revolution was bad for France and would be bad for England too. He believed that creating new, untested structures of governance, based on theory alone, was to play a dangerous game.

For Burke, radical change based on pure reasoning was both unworkable and immoral. Burke argued that if this new societal structure was not solid – and collapsed - the country would be plunged into chaos.

Instead, he saw politics as an empirical science that should be based on past experience and tradition. The core of Burke's theory was concerned with defending traditional forms of rule within society. So, how could this play out on a smaller scale? Let's imagine an old building – the roof leaks and there are draughty gaps in the floor, but it's still habitable.

A group of people – in a radical move – decide that's not good enough. They conspire to burn the house down. There's no going back. Within minutes, the house has been reduced to embers – gone forever. So, what comes next?

The group who burnt the house down want to build something completely different – a transformation – a dramatic new architectural structure using new materials. If their idea works, it will be much more comfortable than the old house. But there's a chance that these revolutionary building techniques won't work. The building could turn out to be unstable – after all, the techniques have never been tested before! A few other people also want to build something different – but they want to introduce these new techniques gradually, over time rather than all at once.

And a group who were against destroying the property in the first place, not surprisingly, think that a replica of the old house should be built in its place. They think that experimenting would be too risky and believe that the best way to proceed with the new building would be to draw on past traditions and experience. Burke – neither a revolutionary, nor a moderate liberal – would have reached the same conclusion as these conservatives. Reflections of the Revolution in France provoked a huge response – both of praise and criticism – and Burke himself has come to be regarded as one of the founders of the British Conservative tradition.

A more detailed examination can be found in the MACAT analysis.