French Constitution of 1791

The French Constitution of 1791, of the National Constituent Assembly, exactly four months after the Constitution of Poland - September 3, 1791 - adopted, was founded during the French Revolution. With their revolutionary France was transformed from an absolutist to a constitutional monarchy, which, however, only about a year had stock (see Chronology of the French Revolution ).

Executive

At the head of the executive branch was the king who was allowed to appoint and dismiss his ministers, who had the oversight of the officials in the 83 départements and municipalities. The officers were introduced by the choice of active citizens in their posts. The king along with the Legislative National Assembly control over the armed forces, where he held the sole command in case of war. In addition, the king had a suspensive veto on the legislative proposals of the National Assembly, ie he could delay a bill for two terms (four years).

Legislature

For the legislature, the Legislative Assembly is responsible, which was chosen by electors every two years. The electors ( approx 45000 ) in turn were elected (one elector for 100 voters ) every two years by the active citizens (about 4.3 million). The National Assembly had together with the king the supreme command of the armed forces ( see exception above) and controlled the Minister and the courts.

Judiciary

The judiciary was shared by three different court institutions: First, the high court, which was convened by the National Assembly and ruled on the offenses of statesmen. Second, the Court of Appeal and in third place the courts, whose judges and jurors were chosen by the active citizens every two years.

Voters

In France, was the so-called census suffrage, that is, every man over 25 years, who had a certain level of revenue, had the right to vote. These men were called active citizens. As passive citizens landless men who had either no or a very low tax revenues were (different sources say 1.5 or 3 livres tax revenue ) and therefore did not have the right to choose. An indirect electoral system ensured that only a limited group of active citizens, the deputies of the National Assembly stated: The active citizens who paid direct taxes worth at least three working days, initially chose electors paid which direct taxes worth at least 10 working days. And these only 50,000 electors finally chose the deputies who performed either direct taxes to the value of approximately 100 working days, or landowners. But you could get the right to vote once they had paid enough taxes. Without a political voice were non - taxpayers, men under 25 and women.