1789: PRELIMINARIES

Prior to the convocation of the Estates-General the principle of constitutional redress through revolutionary action was inferred in effect in Condorcet's political thinking in the form of a firm advocacy of the right of the governed to change constitutions, and to withdraw their consent to be ruled, should the terms of the contract of association be breached. His defence of this right co-existed with a deep fear of rapid upheaval, anarchy and mob violence that would never leave him, and in the months following the fall of the Bastille he would have much to say on the management of the raw forces of insurrection and their containment, once unleashed, within a monarchical system seamlessly transformed and endowed, unlike absolute autocracies, with the capacity to deflect demands for radical constitutional change. In the ebb and flow of revolutionary violence Condorcet never ceased to insist that progress was achievable only through reason, not force of arms, and that true victory over despotism came about when reason had marshalled its forces more effectively than those of the mob. Power, for Condorcet, would never emanate legitimately from the streets, or for that matter from the guillotine.