Direct and Representative Democracy. The Debate in Revolutionary France (1789-1795)

Abstract

This essay explores the debate concerning the idea of democracy in the French Revolution (1789-1795). It shows that this idea is based upon representative democracy as well as direct democracy, maintaining a complex and precarious equilibrium between the two. It investigates the different political-institutional means used in those years, the parliamentary debates and the three constitutions (1791, 1793, 1795), focusing on concepts such as representation, electoral mandate and primary assemblies. Representative democracy and direct democracy turn out to be neither distant from nor alternative to each other, but interdependent and mutual.