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26 The Inner Enemies of Democracy<br />
Pelagius, they do not recommend total submission to<br />
public authorities, or to the values derived from tradition<br />
or the supposed intentions of Providence: rather,<br />
they believe that the individual can improve himself, just<br />
as he can improve the society in which he lives. Instead<br />
of relying solely on his predestination, he must contribute<br />
to his own salvation. These thinkers are on the<br />
side of autonomy. It is the nature of men, Montesquieu<br />
wrote at the beginning of The Spirit of Laws, that they<br />
must be able to act as ‘free agents’, adding: ‘every man<br />
who is supposed [to be] a free agent ought to be his<br />
own governor’. 9 Of course, Rousseau opens his Social<br />
Contract with the gloomy observation that he sees man<br />
everywhere in chains even though he was born free: this<br />
characteristic was part of the very definition of man:<br />
‘To renounce your liberty is to renounce your status as<br />
a man.’ As opposed to Christian traditionalists, he does<br />
not believe that, in order to go to heaven, it is enough<br />
to be baptized, to comply with the rituals of the church<br />
and to wait for grace: ‘And I think, on the contrary,<br />
that what is essential in Religion consists in practice;<br />
and that not only must one be a good man, merciful,<br />
humane, and charitable, but that anyone who is truly<br />
like that has enough belief for being saved.’ 10 Human<br />
works rather than divine grace lead to salvation.<br />
At the same time, in their anthropological views, these<br />
authors are closer to Augustine than to Pelagius. They<br />
believe that the human being is hampered by internal<br />
obstacles that he has the greatest difficulty in overcoming;<br />
they do not believe in linear progress, or the<br />
possibility for men to attain perfection: evil cannot be<br />
eradicated once and for all.<br />
Montesquieu shows that men tend to be blind about<br />
themselves, and are prey to impulses they cannot<br />
manage. ‘But constant experience shows us that every<br />
man invested with power is apt to abuse it.’ 11 This<br />
omnipresent temptation weighs no less than original sin,
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