Quantitative Studies of the French Revolution

• Published in: History and theory :Studies in the philosophy of history Vol. 12; no. 2; pp. 163 - 191
• Main Authors: Shapiro, Gilbert, Markoff, John, Weitman, Sasha R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Middletown, Conn Wesleyan University Press 01-01-1973
• Subjects: Clergy; Content analysis; Direct taxes; France/French; French Revolution; Government bureaucracy; Nobility; Political revolutions; Politics; Public opinion; Radicalism; Revolution/Revolutions/ Revolutionary; Social change; Social movements; Taxation
• ISSN: 0018-2656; 1468-2303
• DOI: 10.2307/2504909

A review & assessment of comparative studies of revolution. All are seen to ignore the study of stability. In seeking the uniformities in revolutionary situations, they rarely examine nonrevolutionary situations. A case study of the French Revolution is presented based on a content analysis of the Cahiers de Doleances of 1789 via an intricate coding system. From the Cahiers, a sample of 826 parish documents clustered in 47 bailliages was selected. Among the findings: the bailliages highly represented were those more concerned with participation in the electoral process; they were more likely to have their Cahier printed, to attach an imperative mandate to it, & to establish committees of correspondence to sustain relationships between elected delegates & their constituencies. Ur'ization emerged as important for revolutionary behavior. The Third Estate in those bailliages with any enoblement opportunities was more radical than the Third Estate in bailliages with no such opportunities. Several questions are discussed in the context of this res: Was the French Revolution a mass phenomenon or a class phenomenon? Which sector of the Old Regime--the economy or the central gov--was primarily responsible for democratizing & revolutionizing French society? The Tocquevilian conception of PO in pre-revolutionary France appears to be more concordant with the findings than the Marxian thesis that the French Revolution was a class phenomenon. Another aspect of the studies deals with the soc bases for bur'cies. In 1789 in France there was an enormous demand for bur'cy. The strategic interest of the unique historical data for quantitative sociol'al res is pointed out. M. Maxfield.