Acceso usuarios
Michel Péronnet
In this article Michel Péronnet discusses the phenomenon of the acceptance of radical or revolutionary changes in society, through which, in time, they become a recognized part of the normal political structure of the society and are generally taken to be irreversible. The example chosen in the article is the way in which the basic principles of the French Revolution of 1789 came to be incorporated into successive political settlements in France, became part of the ordinary language of political discourse, and were increasingly incorporated into constitutional law and political practice. The article focuses on the settlements of 1815, 1830 and 1848. It shows how even the Bourbon Restoration of 1815 had to come to terms with irreversibility of much of the agenda of 1789, though it left areas of ambivalence, so that the possibility of counterrevolution was not definitively excluded. But when these areas were explored by Charles X, they led to the revolution of 1830, after which the principles of 1789 were reinforced in the revised Charter. When Louis-Philippe and Guizot in turn failed to accept the full implications of the revolutionary programme, it was forcibly reasserted in 1848, and it was never seriously challenged thereafter as the basis on which French political society was constructed.
