Popular Sovereignty In The French Revolution

May 5, 1789, the beginning of the infamous French Revolution. Historians around the world studied the causes of the French Revolution, arguably regarded as one of the most important events in human history. Many important ideologies were developed during this time period. The current western political philosophies in France is the result of the French Revolution which introduced the principles of civic equality and popular sovereignty that challenged the historical Three Estates. Following many European reform trends, France in 1789 began their own major reform that lasted nearly a decade. France suffered from many political problems, causing chaos in France. One major problem in France was the government itself. At that time, many governments

Popular sovereignty is the idea that "governments derive their authority from the consent and support of people, not from God" (Alpha). Until the modern era, most kings and governments claimed their authority from God, a concept called divine right of kings. The concept was based in part of a "social contract" between individuals and their government, a concept created by writers like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. A corollary of popular sovereignty is that if a government fails or mistreats its people, the people have the right to replace it (The Social Contract). Because the Third Estate formed the vast majority of the French nation, it was entitled to representation in the national government. Furthermore, popular sovereignty "replaces the bipolar structure of monarchy with the unipolar structure of self-government (Kelley). The power of authority is taken back to the people instead of the government. Popular sovereignty also, "in terms of mimetic theory, is the fundamental structure of sovereignty is the bipolarity of the victim and the mob, and in historical period we have considered, popular sovereignty is the myth of the murder of kings" (Kelley). Mimetic theory is the idea of a mechanism universally operative in human history which is justified in the emerging discipline of evolutionary psychology. Basically, if the people want

Currently, the France, that people know today, is the aftermath of the French Revolution. The government of France “is a unique hybrid of presidential and parliamentary systems that reflect rich political traditions and culture” (Guardian). In the current France, there is no absolute monarchy. There is no divine ruler like King Louis XVI. France is now a democratic country with the President as the leader along with his hers subsidiaries. Currently, the President of France is Emmanuel Macron of the Republic Party (A Short) Macron, so far, has made very good changes not just in France, but especially throughout