Frederic Passy, the Peace Movement, and Freedoms of Association

Classical liberals argue that economic, political, and social freedoms complement and reinforce one another. This chapter engages with this “systems complementarity” hypothesis by illustrating how freedom of association in civil society enables citizens to defend freedom of association in economic and commercial life. Classical liberal arguments for free trade do not merely rest upon efficiency considerations but are grounded in conceptual and normative claims surrounding the desirability of freedom of association for persons interacting across political borders. One of these claims is that commercial freedom of association increases opportunities for interpersonal contact through markets, promoting peace. Given the history of states using militarism and protectionism not only to generate rents for preferred political interests, but as reasons to restrict free association within commercial life, an array of associations and movements emerged in Europe, and elsewhere, challenging the hegemonic political ideologies and governance practices biased toward mercantilism and war. 

Using the life and work of French liberal, and inaugural Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Frederic Passy as an illustrative case, we show how free association among international peace activists enabled them to advance complementary economic, political, and social freedoms. Passy and the nineteenth-century peace movement generated pro-trade economic frames in political discourses about peace and used their social networks to build significant organizational and resourcing capabilities for the peace movement. Passy was an ideological and organizational entrepreneur showing how social movement activism constitutes an important enabling activity promulgating free association within the commercial, political, and social arenas.