Post by maxinquaye on May 8, 2017 17:57:32 GMT -5
Now that the French presidential election is done and dusted, it is a curious fact that both the French and the US republics were founded on the same ideals that were crosspollinated across the Atlantic several times.
Thomas Jefferson (I think) was very much inspired by the revolution in France when he went there as an ambassador. The French revolution itself was inspired by the US one. Unfortunately, external and internal pressure derailed the French revolution into terror and tyranny for a while.
France had reset its republic five times by now, which is why we say it's the 5th Republic. The last time it was reset to fix the unstable form of parliamentary democracy it had. That was in 1958. The 4th Republic was the reboot after Hitler had been defeated, and France was liberated. The 3rd died when France was occupied, and was replaced by the Vichy regime - which no living Frenchman admits as a legitimate French state, except that it of course was the continuation of the 3rd Republic with all the "red tape" of human rights and equality, brotherhood, and liberty cut out.
This made me think, and wonder if it could be argued that the US too has reset and rebooted its republic. There's the initial one under the Articles of Confederation, which proved unworkable. Then there was the Civil War which changed the whole thing again. This would make the current US the 2nd republic? 3rd? 4th?
And would you like to explicitly change the Republic into the next numeral now, and if so, what about the setup would you change?
Thomas Jefferson (I think) was very much inspired by the revolution in France when he went there as an ambassador. The French revolution itself was inspired by the US one. Unfortunately, external and internal pressure derailed the French revolution into terror and tyranny for a while.
France had reset its republic five times by now, which is why we say it's the 5th Republic. The last time it was reset to fix the unstable form of parliamentary democracy it had. That was in 1958. The 4th Republic was the reboot after Hitler had been defeated, and France was liberated. The 3rd died when France was occupied, and was replaced by the Vichy regime - which no living Frenchman admits as a legitimate French state, except that it of course was the continuation of the 3rd Republic with all the "red tape" of human rights and equality, brotherhood, and liberty cut out.
This made me think, and wonder if it could be argued that the US too has reset and rebooted its republic. There's the initial one under the Articles of Confederation, which proved unworkable. Then there was the Civil War which changed the whole thing again. This would make the current US the 2nd republic? 3rd? 4th?
And would you like to explicitly change the Republic into the next numeral now, and if so, what about the setup would you change?
