Declaration of the Rights of Man
On August 26, 1789, six weeks after the storming of the Bastille, the French National Constituent Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Its 17 articles asserted that sovereignty resides in the nation, that men are born free and equal in rights, and that law is the expression of the general will. Lafayette drafted the initial text with input from Thomas Jefferson. Louis XVI was reduced, in theory, to a citizen executive. Within four years he was guillotined in practice, on January 21, 1793.
The Declaration was profoundly influenced by the American model, but went further in its universalism. Its seventeen articles remain part of the French constitutional order today, alongside the 1958 constitution.
03 · Consent of the Governed
Locke, Rousseau, and the revolutions they inspired reframed the question entirely. Legitimacy no longer flowed from God to king. It flowed from the governed to the government. It was a radical idea in 1776. It's now so assumed that most people can't name its source.
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