France before 1789: The Unraveling of an Absolutist Regime

by Jon Elster

Overview

A masterful new account of old regime France by one of the world's most prominent political philosophers

France before 1789 traces the historical origins of France's National Constituent Assembly of 1789, providing a vivid portrait of the ancien régime and its complex social system in the decades before the French Revolution. Jon Elster writes in the spirit of Alexis de Tocqueville, who described this tumultuous era with an eye toward individual and group psychology and the functioning of institutions. Whereas Tocqueville saw the old regime as a breeding ground for revolution, Elster, more specifically, identifies the rural and urban conflicts that fueled the constitution-making process from 1789 to 1791. He presents a new approach to history writing, one that supplements the historian's craft with the tools and insights of modern social science. Elster draws on important French and Anglo-American scholarship as well as a treasure trove of historical evidence from the period, such as the Memoirs of Saint-Simon, the letters of Madame de Sévigné, the journals of the lawyer Barbier and the bookseller Hardy, the Remonstrances of Malesherbes, and La Bruyère's maxims.

Masterfully written and unparalleled in scope, France before 1789 is the first volume of a trilogy that promises to transform our understanding of constitution making in the eighteenth century. Volume 2 will look at revolutionary America in the years leading up to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 while the third volume will examine all facets of the French and American assemblies, from how they elected their delegates and organized their proceedings to how they addressed issues of separation of powers and representation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691241524
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	12/13/2022
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	972,148
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jon Elster is the Robert K. Merton Professor of Social Science at Columbia University and honorary professor at the Collège de France. His many books include Securities against Misrule: Juries, Assemblies, Elections; Alexis de Tocqueville: The First Social Scientist; and Ulysses and the Sirens: Studies in Rationality and Irrationality. He lives in Oslo, Norway.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

The Nature of the Ancien Régime 1

Mechanisms: The Importance of Choice 8

Mechanisms: Interaction 20

Chapter 2 The Psychology of the Main Social Groups: Motivations 32

Interest 32

Reason 35

Passion 39

The Nobility of the Robe 59

The Peasantry 60

Seigneurial Justice 88

The Urban Populations 91

The Clergy 95

Chapter 3 The Psychology of the Main Social Groups: Information and Beliefs 102

Top-Down Beliefs 102

Bottom-Up Beliefs 118

Horizontal Belief Formation 131

Chapter 4 The Royal Government and the Courts 139

Unwritten Constraints 139

The Tools of Government 154

Discretionary Tools 161

Revenues and Spending 170

Necker Cause of the Revolution? 173

The Legal System 178

Chapter 5 Deliberating Bodies 188

The Estates-General (1302-1614) 188

The Main Provincial Estates 200

The Provincial Estates and the Parlements 206

Chapter 6 Conclusion 214

The Limits of Our Knowledge 214

Exemptions and Exceptions 216

Scarcity, Urgency, and Uncertainty 217

Injustice and Norm Violations 219

Conspiracy Theories and Agency-Bias 221

Passive Resistance 223

Second Best? 227

Wars, Taxes, and Loans 229

Tocqueville 231

Appendix: Bibliographical Overview 235

References 245

Index 259

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"France before 1789 is social science of a high order. Elster's illuminating approach offers a challenge to how history is taught and written."—James Livesey, author of Civil Society and Empire: Ireland and Scotland in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World

"A provocative book that is certain to stir up debate."—Julian Swann, author of Exile, Imprisonment, or Death: The Politics of Disgrace in Bourbon France, 1610–1789

Editorial Reviews

"[Jon Elster] has managed to plumb the depths of archives and combine that with his penetrating insight into human behaviour. The result is a very different picture of the motivations for the revolution instead of the usual ‘let them eat cake’ variety of history."—-Siddharth Singh, Open Magazine

"[France before 1789] has a cool, clear style."—-Hamish Gobson, Think Scotland

"Elster’s knowledge of French history is as extensive as it is impressive. . . . Many of us would like to understand things more fully and more clearly than often we do, and that a narrowly empirical approach allows. This is one of the reasons that works such as that of Jon Elster enrich the writing of history by raising new questions and positing new ways of looking at things."—-Harvey Chisick, The European Legacy

From the Publisher