Traduire l’ordre social dans l’ordre représentatif: La fixation de la composition des Assemblées Provinciales françaises de 1787

Abstract

The French Old Regime was divided between pays d’états (regions which had their own provincial assemblies) and pays d’élection. However, during the reign of Louis XVI, the Crown favoured the creation of ‘Provincial Assemblies’ (1787) in the pays d’élection. The specific selection of their members showed that there was a real move towards a more ‘representative’ estates representation, and thereby a relatively ‘modern’ kind of parliament (where, for instance, the third estate represented half of the members). This study is therefore of a high heuristic value, in that it shows that a certain ‘modernization’ of the French representative system was possible before the 1789 Estates General. At least, lasting principles may be found in those institutions, such as the practical principle of territorial representation that has a great importance in many present-day local and regional representative systems. © 2004, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.