Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Part one
- 1 The crisis of the Old Regime
- 2 The formation of the new ideal of the polity
- 3 The achievement of the new ideal of the polity
- 4 The new ideal of the polity reaffirmed
- Part two
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliographical note and list of manuscript sources
- Index
3 - The achievement of the new ideal of the polity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Part one
- 1 The crisis of the Old Regime
- 2 The formation of the new ideal of the polity
- 3 The achievement of the new ideal of the polity
- 4 The new ideal of the polity reaffirmed
- Part two
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliographical note and list of manuscript sources
- Index
Summary
No blot of personal interest has yet sullied the decrees of the Constituent Assembly; even our enemies grant us this fairness.
Duport to the National Assembly, March 29, 1790The pact of association forged on the night of August 4, with its repudiaton of privilege, created a vacuum in the governance of the kingdom. As a result, the task before the National Assembly was a comprehensive one encompassing all of society, and any attempt to analyze it risks presenting an incomplete or fragmentary picture of the effort to attain it. At the same time, however, although its members wrestled with a myriad of issues such as the debt, the powers of the monarch, the composition of future legislatures, taxation, the restructuring of the military and the Church and other matters, there were two undertakings that the National Assembly regarded as of fundamental importance in establishing its new ideal of the polity – the reorganization of administration and of the judiciary. These two spheres were the areas in which the privileged corporate paradigm had been most evident – and a point of tension – under the Old Regime. Although other matters were of great significance, the deputies regarded these issues as critical not only for realizing the goals of the Assembly for the nation, but also for ensuring the continuation of its ideals into the future after it had disbanded.
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- The Remaking of FranceThe National Assembly and the Constitution of 1791, pp. 69 - 110Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994