The article examines the Coup of 18 Fructidor, Year V, as a test of the political-theoretical propositions formulated by Madame de Staël and Benjamin Constant after the 9 Thermidor. It is argued that the authors conceived the absolute eradication of arbitrariness as the main challenge to the Thermidorian Republic, seeking to balance this challenge with the principle of the sovereignty of the people and the protection of the Republic and of the social order against the majority opinion of the moment. The Coup of 18 Fructidor is interpreted as an event that put this project under exam, compelling Staël and Constant to seek out a way of incorporating arbitrariness to the institutional system in a tamed manner, so as to avoid its transformation into tyranny. Followingthis reassessment of the place of arbitrariness came Staël’s “dictatorship of institutions” and Constant’s “neutral power”. Nevertheless, the uncertainty of both authors about the ultimate efficacy of their proposals reveals an aporia of the embryonic modern democracy.
Benjamin Constant; Madame de Staël; Arbitrariness; Sovereignty of the People; French Revolution; Republic