The Differences Between Burke and Payne on the French Revolution

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Burke and Payne had been more or less on the same side of the American question in the previous decade. Burke supported the Americans because although he thought that Parliament had the right to tax them as it shows to, he thought the British Parliament was behaving foolishly. So they ended up on theSame side ultimately, but for very different reasons. And those very different reasons led them to be in very different places on the question of France.

Yuval Levin, author of The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left, talks to EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas of Burke and Paine and their influence on the evolution of political philosophy. Levin outlines the differing approaches of the two thinkers to liberty, authority, and how reform and change should take place. Other topics discussed include Hayek's view of tradition, Cartesian rationalism, the moral high ground in politics, and how the "right and left" division of American politics finds its roots in the debates of these thinkers from the 1700s.