The Girondin constitutional project, presented to the French National Convention on February 15 and 16, 1793, by Nicolas de Caritat, formerly the Marquis de Condorcet

Marquis de Condorcet

Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet , known as Nicolas de Condorcet, was a French philosopher, mathematician, and early political scientist whose Condorcet method in voting tally selects the candidate who would beat each of the other candidates in a run-off election...

, is composed of three parts:

• An Exposition of the Principles and Motives of the Constitutional Scheme, approx. 80 pages
• A Draft Declaration of the Natural, Civil, and Political Rights of Man, in 33 articles
• A Draft French Constitution, in 13 titles

The work was signed by the eight members of the Convention's Constitution Committee: Condorcet, Gensonné

Armand Gensonné

Armand Gensonné was a French politician.The son of a military surgeon, he was born in Bordeaux, Gascony, and studied Law before the outbreak of the French Revolution, becoming lawyer of the parlement of Bordeaux...

, Barrère

Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac

Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac was a French politician and journalist, one of the most notorious members of the National Convention during the French Revolution.-Early career:He was born at Tarbes in Gascony...

, Barbaroux

Charles Jean Marie Barbaroux

Charles Jean Marie Barbaroux was a French politician of the Revolutionary period.-Early career:Born in Marseille, Barbaroux was educated at first by the local Oratorians, then studied law in Aix-en-Provence, and became a successful lawyer...

, Paine

Thomas Paine

Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...

, Pétion

Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve

Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve was a French writer and politician.Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve was the son of a at Chartres. Though it is known that he was trained as a lawyer, very few specifics are known about Petion’s early life, as he was virtually unknown prior to the French Revolution...

, Vergniaud

Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud

Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud was a lawyer and statesman, and a significant figure of the French Revolution. A deputy to the Assembly from Bordeaux, Vergniaud was a notably eloquent and impressive orator...

 and Sieyès.

Principles and motives

In the exposition of the principles and motives behind the constitutional scheme that he reads before the National Convention, Condorcet begins, as a true mathematician, by a description of the "problem to solve":

To give to a territory of twenty-seven thousand square leagues, inhabited by twenty-five million individuals, a constitution which, being founded solely on the principles of reason and justice, insures to citizens the fullest enjoyment of their rights; to combine the parts of this constitution, so that the necessity of obedience to the laws, the submission of individual wills to the general will, allow the subsistence in all their extent, of the sovereignty of the people, equality among citizens, and the exercise of natural liberty, such is the problem that we had to solve.

Are subsequently exposed, in this order:

• the philosophical justifications for the abolition of monarchy
  Monarchy
  A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
  
  ;
• the motives to prefer the unity and indivisibility of the republic to the establishment of a confederal
  Confederation
  A confederation in modern political terms is a permanent union of political units for common action in relation to other units. Usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution, confederations tend to be established for dealing with critical issues such as defense, foreign...
  
   or federal
  Federation
  A federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...
  
   order;
• an argumentation in favour of a constitution authorizing the representatives to make only laws that are submitted 1) to the limits of a constitutional law they cannot change; 2) to the direct censorship of the people, who remains the sole depository of sovereignty
  Sovereignty
  Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
  
  ;
• primary assemblies: their functions (elections, petitions, censorship of laws, approving/rejecting the summoning of a national convention, or a constitution draft, or a proposition emanating from the legislative body), their relation with the assembly of national representation;
• the reasons to prefer, for the delegation of the people's powers, a unique principle of action to multiple and independent principles of action kept in balance by their concurrence;
• the reasons to prefer a unicameral constitution, the means to protect oneself against the dangers of laws adopted hastily;
• The reasons to prefer a small executive
  Executive Power
  Executive Power is Vince Flynn's fifth novel, and the fourth to feature Mitch Rapp, an American agent that works for the CIA as an operative for a covert counter terrorism unit called the "Orion Team."-Plot summary:...
  
   council to a single individual; the composition, the renewal and the functioning of the council; its subordination to the legislative power which nevertheless cannot dismiss its members;
• the independence of the public treasury
  Treasury
  A treasury is either*A government department related to finance and taxation.*A place where currency or precious items is/are kept....
  
   vis-à-vis the executive council; the account juries;
• the administrative division of the territory into large commune
  Communes of France
  The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...
  
  s;
• the administration of the departments; the subordination of the administrator to the executive council; their surveillance by the legislative body;
• the administration of justice; the trial by juries
  Jury
  A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
  
   in civil affairs, only after the failure of arbitration
  Arbitration
  Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution , is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, where the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons , by whose decision they agree to be bound...
  
  ;
• the institution of a national jury for judging functionaries in cases of offence against the liberty of the people or the safety of the State.
• the revision of rulings, their possible cassation
  Supreme court
  A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
  
   attributed to censors;
• the abolition of death penalty
  Capital punishment
  Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
  
   for all offences involving private individuals;
• the same political rights to all men aged 21 and above, born in France or settled in France at least since one year; philosophical justifications; eligibility to all public places to citizens aged 25 and above;
• the electoral method inspired by the academic works on the "probability of majority decisions" done by Condorcet himself; two-turn preferential elections, at fixed dates, the first turn to form the list of candidates to be presented and who are definitively elected during the second turn;
• exterior relations and war;
• the revision of the constitution by way of a national convention independent from the legislative body;
• philosophical conclusion on the objectives of the constitution; summary of the principles and motives of its authors;

Declaration of rights

The first article declares the natural

Natural rights

Natural and legal rights are two types of rights theoretically distinct according to philosophers and political scientists. Natural rights are rights not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of any particular culture or government, and therefore universal and inalienable...

, civil

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

, and political rights of men which are liberty

Liberty

Liberty is a moral and political principle, or Right, that identifies the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves, to behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions...

, equality

Equality before the law

Equality before the law or equality under the law or legal egalitarianism is the principle under which each individual is subject to the same laws....

, safety

Safety

Safety is the state of being "safe" , the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual, financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological, educational or other types or consequences of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which could be...

, property

Property

Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...

, social security

Social security

Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...

, and resistance to oppression

Right of revolution

In political philosophy, the right of revolution is the right or duty, variously stated throughout history, of the people of a nation to overthrow a government that acts against their common interests...

.

Articles 2 to 9 treat of liberty and equality and define these two terms.

Articles 10 to 22 treat of safety and property.

Article 23 declares a right to elementary instruction.

Article 24 treat of public relief.

Articles 25 to 30 treat of social security.

Articles 31 and 32 treat of resistance to oppression.

Article 33, the last one, declares the right of the people to review, reform and modify the constitution.

Territory

The territory of the French Republic keeps the preexisting 85 departments. The departments themselves are divided into large communes, which are in turn divided into municipal sections and primary assemblies.

Citizenship

The quality of citizen is granted to men 21 year old and older, following an uninterrupted residence of one year on French soil, counting from the day of their inscription on the civic table of a primary assembly. All public offices are opened to citizens aged 25 year old and older.

In addition to the right to vote, citizens enjoy the right to petition, and the right to censure acts emanating from their representatives.

Administration

Each department is managed by an administrative council of 18 members, of which two form the directoire. The communes are led by a municipality administration made up of 12 members and a mayor, who chairs the administration. Communes including more than one section contain agencies subordinated to the municipality. Half of the members of the departments' administrative bodies are renewed every two years, three months after the date of the legislative elections. The mode of the municipal elections is not a constitutional law.

Electoral system

The citizens exert their right to vote in primary assemblies including between 450 to 900 members. Each primary assembly elect a bureau responsible for the citizenship registry, for summoning primary assemblies when the constitution prescribes it and for examining ballot papers.

The elections comprise two polls: a first one used to prepare the list of candidates being presented, and a second one used for the election of the candidates on the list drawn up by the first election.

At the time of the first poll, voters receive from the bureau a ballot paper identified to their name. On it they write (or have someone write for them in case of illiteracy) as many names as there are offices to elect and drop their bulletin at the office. The list of presentation is formed of the names which received the most votes, and their number is triple that of the offices needing to be renewed. Are added an equal number of substitutes taken among those who obtained the most votes after the candidates. The candidates and substitutes have 15 days to desist after which the list, sorted by the number of votes and without the remaining substitutes, becomes final.

At the time of the second poll, the voters receive a bulletin with two columns, one named "First Column of Election", the another "Additional Column", each one being divided into as many boxes as there are candidates to elect.

If a candidate receives the majority of the votes on the first column, he is immediately elected. If not, the votes of the two columns are added and those who obtain the majority in this way are elected. The others are elected at the plurality of the votes if the offices are not all filled already.

Executive

The executive would be made up of a council of eight members: seven ministers and a secretary. Legislation, war, foreign affairs, the navy, and public contributions would each have their own minister. A sixth minister would be responsible for agriculture, trade and manufactures and a seventh for aids, works, public buildings, and the arts. The presidency of the council would pass from one minister to another every fifteen days.

The council would be renewed by half every year and its members were to be elected for two years. Each member of the council was to be elected by a separate poll.

The legislative body would have been able to put the members of the council to trial.

Three commissaries to national treasury were to be elected for three years using the same electoral mode as that used to elect the members of the executive council.

Legislative

The legislative body was to be unicameral and renewed during elections held on the first Sunday of May of each year. There was to be one representative per fifty thousand souls and substitutes in equal numbers. The representatives who did not sit at the end of one month would be replaced by a substitute. The representatives would have exercised the functions of president and secretaries of the legislative assembly for one month maximum.

The constitutional law would have provided for a distinction, using several examples, between the legislative acts that would be law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

s and those that arwould be decree

Decree

A decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...

s, and also describe in detail the law making process.

A bureau of 13 representatives was to be formed each month to report on all bills and decrees. The members of the bureau would only have been allowed to be elected once during the same legislature.

Judicial

Civil and criminal justice are merged into a uniform code of law for the whole republic.

There is at least one Justice of the Peace per commune, elected for one year and rendering justice without fees by conciliation of the parties. In each department there is a civil jury composed of a director, a public rapporteur, a national commissary, and juries. The civil juries table of a department is made up twice a year by the election of one jury for each 100 citizens registered on the citizenship tables of the primary assemblies.

In criminal affairs, capital punishment is abolished for private offences. All citizens have the right to be judged by a court made up of juries. The defendants go up in front of a first jury responsible to declare if there are grounds for lawsuit and if it is so, a second jury made of at least 12 juries declare verdict on the case.

Judicial censors are elected every two years and are charged to break the rulings rendered by infringement of the law.

A national jury renders verdict on the crimes of high treason

High treason

High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...

 determined by the penal code.

Military

Citizens in a position to bear arms constitute the military force of the Republic. The executive council appoints generals via commission, for the time of a campaign, and in the event of war only. Citizens of the communes appoint the commanders of the national guard.

Convention

The constitution is modified by the national convention, convened by the legislative body at every twenty years. Convention can also be proposed by any citizen or the legislative body if the majority of the citizens judges it to be necessary and approves of it by a vote in primary assemblies. The members of the legislature cannot be elected to the convention and this one cannot sit more than one year. The constitution project must be accepted by the people.

Contributions

The people by themselves or through their representatives consents to public contributions, which are deliberated upon annually by the legislative body and cannot subsist beyond one year without an explicit renewal. The share of the product of industry or work which each citizen needs to subsist is not taxable. Departments and communes can establish particular public contributions only with the authorization of the legislative body. The accounts of the expenditure are made public.

Foreign relations

The French Republic only makes war by the arms "for the preservation of its liberty, the conservation of its territory and the defence of its allies". War can be only be decreed by the legislative body, with the means of a signed poll, whose moment was fixed three day in advance and after "having heard the Executive Council on the state of the Republic".