Condorcet on Primary Assemblies

Abstract

This chapter is devoted to the constitutional thought of Nicolas de Condorcet and the challenge of representing the sovereign demos. It examines Condorcet's proposal for considering the people in its institutional character rather than as an atomized collective subject that can never be made fully present and properly represented. It also refers to Condorcet's proposal of a republican framework in which the ruling power of making laws and decisions about administration is concentrated in a representative assembly as an alternative to the liberal constitution established in the American colonies. The chapter highlights an institutionalized popular power, a network of primary assemblies, that are aimed at checking its laws, policies, and abuses. It presents an in-depth analysis of the 1793 constitutional plan for the French republic proposed by Condorcet, which read through the lens of his egalitarian tracts on education, slavery, and the rights of women.