The issue of executive power in the institutional evolution and political debate of the French Revolution

The author shows that the issue of executive power is central to the evolving institutions and political debate of a revolution which has always been thought of as basically "legicentrist." A remarkable continuity in this respect is to be found throughout all the revolutionary phases. Constitutional monarchy cannot be reduced to the problem of the fate of the royalty, just as Year VIII cannot be reduced to the coup of Brumaire. So too, the period of Commitee rule was not only a phase of emergency government, but likewise paved the way for the idea of "representative government" and the advent of collegiate rule. An analysis of the archival records by the author also shows the multiple solutions developed by the Thermidorian constituents. The need to reduce the split produced in the early days of the Revolution between wishful thinking and getting things done, is thus very evident in the debate of 1789 to 1793 and is manifest in the search for the lost pensee du gouvernment. A striving for a less rigid separation of powers and more elastic constitutional rules is clearly discernible.