Abstract

In May 1791, in a startling renunciation of power that may well be without parallel in modern history, the Constituent Assembly decreed almost unanimously that none of its members could be elected to the new Legislative Assembly that would soon succeed it. Though many historians have accepted the claims of contemporaries that the passage of this decree was an act of genuine self-sacrifice, this article demonstrates, on the basis of deputy correspondence, that, in reality, few legislators had much of an interest in being reelected. Rather, it is argued, the primary motivating factor for the decree was the Assembly majority's profound distrust and fear of its own parliamentary leadership, which was looking forward to reelection. Following psychoanalytic theory, it is further argued that these intensely negative feelings may, to a large extent, have represented unconscious projections onto the leadership of the uncomfortable realizations of many deputies that they themselves were not entirely living up to their pristine notions of how a Representative of the Nation was supposed to behave.

En mai 1791, par une renonciation au pouvoir peut-être sans pareil dans l'histoire moderne, la Constituante decrete quasi-unanimement la non-reeligibilite de tous ses deputes. Bien que de nombreux historiens aient accepte les arguments contemporains selon lesquels le passage de ce decret constitue un acte authentique d'abnegation, cette article demontre, a travers l'etude de la correspondance des deputes, que peu 'interessent en fait a être reelus. Selon l'auteur, on trouve a l'origine du decret la profonde mefiance et la peur de la majorite de la Constituante envers ses dirigeants qui visent la reelection. En 'appuyant sur la theorie psychanalytique, l'auteur soutient aussi que l'hostilite des deputes represente peut-être en partie des projections inconscientes de la realisation desagreable de la part des deputes que leur conduite ne correspond pas a l'ideal du comportement d'un representant de la nation.