Evolution of the Republican Idea in France from 1789 to 1870: A Historical Analysis

Extract

[...] The imperial ideology makes the Republic, in collective memory, a time of anarchy. B. Social reforms The Second Empire, through its evolutions since 1863, tends towards the republican idea. The Empire then imposes social reforms, relying on the people. In May 1864, worker coalitions are authorized, strikes become legitimate. During the May 1869 elections, Republicans won 30 seats out of 290: supporters of authoritarian empires are losers. Republicans have made progress, this has allowed them to express a program. They demand, as at the beginning of the century, freedom of the press, association, separation of Church and State, secular education, free and compulsory. [...]

[...] However, even if the Republic conserves the order inherited from the Second Empire, authority, which was a republican value, is much less so at the end of the imperial regime. Thus, from 1789 to 1870, the republican idea gradually imposed itself in France, sometimes in approval, sometimes in fear and contestation. The sensitivities of the Republicans vary: they dream of a social or authoritarian Republic, and can or cannot concretize it depending on the power in place. We cannot then reduce the republican idea to the institutional question: it is above all a desire for freedom, equality, and the sovereignty of the people. [...]

[...] However, to study the republican idea, one must not reduce the Republic to the institutional question. Republicans do not always have a Republic from 1789 to 1870; the regime is developed in thought. How is a republican acculturation accomplished from 1789 to 1870? Between 1789 and 1848, the republican legacy of the Revolution gradually established itself as a coherent party through the involvement of Republicans. In 1848, the republican idea is then concretized in a Second Republic, which advances the republican sentiment in France, but remains an unstable regime. [...]

[...] This hesitation illustrates the fact that the republican idea undergoes significant developments throughout the century. This is evident in the elections to the constituent assembly, which see the victory of the moderate Republicans. The republican idea tends towards order more than towards the social, towards freedom more than equality. Liberal sensitivity triumphs over the more social sensitivity of the Jacobins and the plebeians. The republican idea progresses, as evidenced by the democratic success of the elections: 83% of registered voters voted. [...]

[...] The revolution of 1789, relay of the republican idea In 1789, the revolution was a break, marking the end of absolute monarchy. Breaking with the Old Regime in the name of the Nation, that was the people's will. The people invaded the Tuileries Palace on August the king took refuge with the assembly: the pressure being too strong, the assembly decreed the abolition of the monarchy. A new assembly was then elected, which bore the name of Constituent. It sat for the first time on September 20 and 21: it signed the decrees under the title of French Republic. [...]