Both France and Britain advocated many rights for their people; this essay will discuss what those rights were supposed to be, who pushed for them, and what the realities of these rights were.

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Kylie Willis  SN: 04439554                HHB260 Nations & Nationalism : Essay Assignment

During the late eighteenth century due to philosophical writings of men such as Rousseau and Locke, the question of what governments should be and the rights that every person should have began to be questioned.  In France it led to revolution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. The events in France influenced many in Britain to try for reforms to their own government. Both France and Britain advocated many rights for their people; this essay will discuss what those rights were supposed to be, who pushed for them, and what the realities of these rights were.

In France the concepts of liberty, equality, and fraternity blossomed, brought forth by the disenfranchised bourgeoisie (the middle class) who found that their interests were ignored and only the interests of the aristocracy were taken account of by the monarchy. They saw that they had no rights and events led to the French Revolution. During this time of upheaval changes occurred seeing the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (DRMC) drawn up. This declaration dealt with right to resist oppression and the need for a separation of power to avoid a tyrannical government.  Three of the 17 articles dealt with the administration of justice.  One of them asserts the right to a presumption of innocence and another the freedom from arbitrary detention. Thomson states that the DRMC, “…was careful to specify those civic rights that most concretely expressed the immediate aims of the middle classes which now predominated in the Assembly: equality of all before the law, eligibility of all citizens for all public offices, personal freedom from arbitrary arrest or punishment, freedom of speech and the press, and above all an equitable distribution of the burdens of national taxation and the inviolability of private property.” Unfortunately things did not play out the way people would have expected after such a positive step.  For it was a revolution inspired by, led by, and ruled by the middle class and the replacing governing power: the National Assembly, was filled mostly by the bourgeoisie. It was no wonder, then, that the Constitution and the economic reforms were, in the end, great windfalls for the middle class although some things benefited all. Unfortunately, more was to come that proved that the DRMC was not worth much to the people of France as those in power breached it often.

The DRMC set out the basic rights and liberties that were supposed to be taken account of when constituting the new government for France. From the very beginning, people in power disregarded many of its articles in pursuit of their own ends. Article 6 of the DRMC says that in forming laws: every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative. This article was breached in 1791 when the first French constitution was drawn up. Thomson states that it, “… made a distinction between ‘active’ and ‘passive’ citizens and withheld the vote from the latter, defined as those who did not pay taxes equal in value to 3 days’ wages.” This meant that both women, and the poor had no say in parliament. When the Jacobin party led by Robespierre came to power more breaches occurred. Essentially Robespierre ran the country as a dictatorship under which he suppressed all resistance by executing nearly 60,000 French citizens across all classes for counter-revolution or treason. Robespierre’s fall and subsequent guillotining led to ‘The Directory’ coming to power under the 1795 Constitution. The Directory was unpopular with the people and when the people voted in a  royalist majority in 1797, the Directory used military force to oust the elected members from the Assembly.  The actions of the Directory breached article 3 in that they firstly did not have an authority that emanated from the people, article 6 in that they were preventing the expression of the general will of the people by ejecting their chosen representatives, and article 12 in that they used the military to their own benefit contrary to that of the people. Now, the Directory’s actions had put them in a politically precarious position and an alliance with Napoleon Bonaparte the general of the French Military led to Napoleon’s rise to power as Emperor of France. Napoleon’s dictatorship in many ways was a more positive environment then the preceding ones with codification of the law and economic stability, but it came with a price. Liberty was curtailed during Napoleon’s reign thus breaches of the DRMC under articles 4, 7, and 10 occurred as a result. He used the military for his own purposes maintaining his power in contravention of article 12. However, Napoleon followed article 6 in employing people in his government based on talent regardless of background, a step forward in relation to equality. On the other hand in his Napoleonic Code of laws, any gains made by women during the revolution were trampled.  Though the people of France had gained many rights through the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, they were of no use unless those in power wished to follow them.

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Unlike France where a declaration put forth the rights of the people, in Britain, the people’s rights were upheld by their ‘unwritten constitution’ which consisted of concepts such as the ‘rule of law’, the ‘responsible government’, and documents such as the Bill of Rights 1688, Magna Charta 1215, and Habeas Corpus Act 1679. The Rule of Law, limits the nature of governmental power to established laws applying those laws equally and impartially to all regardless of position or station. It protects citizens from arbitrary seizure of their goods or person and provides a framework of known procedures with which ...

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