Victor Prosper Considerant (12 October 1808 – 27 December 1893) was a French utopian socialist philosopher and economist who was a disciple of

Charles Fourier François Marie Charles Fourier (;; 7 April 1772 – 10 October 1837) was a French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker and one of the founders of utopian socialism. Some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in ...

Biography

Considerant was born in Salins-les-Bains, Jura and studied at the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

(1826 diploma). He entered the French army as an engineer, rising to the rank of captain. However, he resigned his commission in 1831, in order to devote himself to advancing the doctrines of Fourier. Subsequently, working as a musician, he collaborated with Fourier on newspapers. He edited the journals ''La Phalanstère'' and ''La Phalange''. On the death of Fourier in 1837, Considerant became the acknowledged head of the movement, and took charge of ''La Phalange''. Considerant wrote much in advocacy of his principles, of which the most important is ''La Destinée Sociale''. He authored ''Democracy Manifesto'', which preceded by five years the similar

Communist Manifesto ''The Communist Manifesto'', originally the ''Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (german: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), is a political pamphlet written by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Commissioned by the Comm ...

by Marx and

Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
''

1848 Revolution The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...

s. He is also known for having devised the

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

system. He also advocated such measures of "

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate decides on policy initiatives without legislator, elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently establishe ...

" (a term he coined) as referendum and recall. The failure of an insurrection against Louis Napoléon obliged Considerant to go into exile in Belgium in June 1849. On an invitation by

Albert Brisbane Albert Brisbane (August 22, 1809 – May 1, 1890) was an American utopian socialist and is remembered as the chief popularizer of the theories of Charles Fourier in the United States. Brisbane was the author of several books, notably ''Social D ...

and helped by Jean-Baptiste Godin, between 1855 and 1857, with his wife, Julie, and his mother-in-law, Clarisse Vigoureux, he founded the colony La Réunion in Texas on Fourier's principles. He was a member of the First International, founded in 1864, and took part in the 1871

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...

. He died in Paris in 1893. Contrary to a common error, his name is not written Considérant as he explained: "... there is no acute accent on my e. I have fought in vain for more than sixty years ever since my name was printed to defend it

rom the accent Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

"Louis Bertrand, ''Histoire de la démocratie et du socialisme en Belgique depuis 1830'', Brussels, éd. Dechenne, t. 1, p. 280, 1906

Citations

External links

* *
Principles of Socialism: Manifesto of Nineteenth Century Democracy
' by Considerant in

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format {{DEFAULTSORT:Considerant, Victor Prosper 1808 births 1893 deaths Forty-Eighters Fourierists French socialists Members of the 1848 Constituent Assembly Members of the International Workingmen's Association Members of the National Legislative Assembly of the French Second Republic People from Jura (department) Politicians from Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Utopian socialists

Biography

Citations

Further reading

External links