Harina de avena
The Constitution of year III is the text which founds the Directoire.
The drafting
The revolutionary government removed after the fall of Maximilien de Robespierre on Thermidor 9 year II (July 27th 1794), the thermidoriens refused to apply the Constitution of year I and worked out that of 1795 favorable to the liberal and moderated middle-class.
During the discussion of the project, Sieyès wished a control of the constitutionality of the laws with the creation of a constitutional Jury. This proposal which it defended in July 1795, was not adopted, but was at the origin of the Senate of the Consulat and the Empire.
The constitution was written by the Convention thermidorienne and was approved by Plébiscite on August 22nd 1795.
They thus preserve the République but restore the vote censitaire with two degrees per fear of the vote for all.
The Declaration of the rights and duties of the man and the citizen
The Declaration of the rights and the duties of the man and the citizen of 1795 corresponds to the preamble to the Constitution of the 5 fructidor year III (August 22nd, 1795).
The proclaimed rights are taken again Déclaration of 1793 put aside the social rights. Slavery thus remains always abolished.
Anxious to maintain the order, the components found for the first time of the duties to the declaration of the rights which are essentially general information without legal consequences nor philosophical. Thus " The good citizen it is the good wire, the good father, the good brother, the good friend, the good époux".
The organization of the capacities
In order to avoid a possibility of return to a revolutionary dictatorship, the Constitution accentuates the Séparation of the capacities without envisaging mechanisms to regulate the crises.
Legislative power
The legislative power is shared between two assemblies (Bicamérisme): a House of Commons (the the Council of the Five hundred) proposes the laws and a senate of 250 members (the Conseil of Old the) adopts them or reject them. These two councils are renewed per third each year.
Executive power
The executive power is entrusted not to only one magistrate but to five directors, from where the name of Directory. Every year, one of its members is replaced by new by a complex mode of nomination. First of all, the Council of Five Hundreds indicates with secret vote ten names which will be porposé with the Council of Old, which indicates one of them among these ten to be with the Directory. Often, the first council put nine unknown names and known so that this one is elected with the Directory. This outgoing director cannot be again indicated that after a 5 years waiting. Each director in turn held the presidency for three months only: this president did not have any personal preponderance or particular capacity. A strict separation of the capacities is still reinforced, the Directory not having any authority on the Councils nor the Councils on the Directory.
A blocked system
The writers seek stability and thus make the text revisable with much difficulty. Moreover, no solution was envisaged in the event of political conflict between the bodies (between the two Councils or the Councils and the directors).
The political context of the time is very disturbed and the Directory must to remain with the capacity, to carry out coups d'etat by cancelling the elections of deputies Jacobins or royalists.
The last coup d'etat is caused against the mode by Napoleon Bonaparte the 18 brumaire year VIII (November 9th, 1799) which founds the Consulat.
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