'Paris, Spring 1848: a brief period for innovations that challenge any simple dichotomy between “direct" and “representative" democracy. Samuel Hayat’s engaging book resurrects experimental institutions that empowered workers at this critical moment to inspire new ways of enacting liberty in our time.'
Lisa Disch, University of Michigan—Ann Arbor, USA
'This book is not only illuminating for acknowledging the importance of the French Revolution of 1848. It is also crucial to understand a type of political representation different from the electoral one, and to realize that republicanism can be revolutionary.'
Yves Sintomer, associate member, Nuffield College, University of Oxford, UK
Acknowledgements
Introduction: The two faces of the French republic
The 1848 Revolution and the meaning of the republic
Which history of republicanism?
The republic and its double
1 From one revolution to another (1789– 1848)
Ultra- royalist reaction and the emergence of the liberal movement
Configurations of the liberal movement
The theory of representative government
Representative government in practice
The emergence of the republican movement
Republicans and the proletariat
The association: a shared arena for workers and republicans
The politicisation of local elections and the reformist movement
Electoral reform and the social question
The banquet campaign and the fall of the July regime
2 The February Republic: A plural system
Establishment of the Provisional Government
Restructuring of the National Guard
Establishment of the Luxembourg Commission
The beginnings of the club movement
The transformation of citizenship
The unrepresentable
3 Institutions under the February Republic: A bone of contention
The Provisional Government: temporary administration or revolutionary authority?
The Parisian National Guard: law enforcement or the armed people?
The Luxembourg Commission, ‘socialist synagogue’ or unprecedented representation of labour?
The Paris press and clubs: conversation or collective action?
4 17 March and the invention of demonstration
Towards the 17 March demonstration
16 March: the first reactionary demonstration
The demands of the 17 March demonstration
The demonstration as representation of the represented
The emergence of partisanship
The Ledru- Rollin circulars and democratic republicanism
Lamartine’s moderate republicanism
5 16 April and the failure of democratic republicanism
16 April, a clash between republicanisms
The people and the streets
The National Guard: a law enforcement tool in the service of the state
The failure of the Luxembourg Commission
Political clubs and newspapers, spaces for free discussion
6 15 May and the triumph of election
The electoral legitimacy of Constituent Assembly
15 May: parliamentary inviolability put to the test
Interpreting the events of 15 May
Absolute representation
7 The two republics
Identifying the ‘idle’: the two faces of National Workshop labourers
The
journaux rouges and social- democratic republicanism
Labour organisation, embodiment of the social- democratic republic
‘It must end’
Defending the republic
Conclusion
Established republicanism
The ‘Proudhonian moment’ of the French labour movement
An autonomous labour movement
Index
Samuel Hayat is a researcher in politics for the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the Sciences Po Center for Political Research (CEVIPOF).