Why did the French Revolution of 1789 fail to produce a stable political regime

WHY DID THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1789 FAIL TO PRODUCE A STABLE POLITICAL REGIME?
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Introduction
French Revolution is considered to be the beginning of a new era by some accounts. Whether it was a success or a failure is not an objectively understood phenomenon. There are several perspectives to the French Revolution 1789 with some considering it a success while others a failure. However, one thing, which is indisputable, is that the revolution failed to result in the establishment of a stable government. The reasons behind this failure are multiple but mostly relate to chaos and mismanagement of circumstances by political parties that came in power after the revolution. This essay shines a light on key factors contributing to the failure of the French Revolution.
Polarization
Before the revolution began, there were severe differences among different groups of people regarding their utility. For example, the groups of farmers, peasants, and people belonging to lower strata believed that it would be sufficient if they get enough to eat rather than fighting against monarchy (Goudie, 2015). In other words, they were not willing to sacrifice for the cause of the revolution. They were satisfied with the system as long as monarch fulfilled their basic needs. They were not concerned with the issues relating to power and decision-making authority being in possession of a few people.
At the same time, there were groups of moderates who were rather concerned about the unconstitutional nature of monarchy than about monarchy. To them, it was still workable if monarchy existed in the constitutional form (Palmer, 2018). Hence, if the rulers had defined legal bounds of their power and a formal process through which every matter was to be managed, they could have been satisfied.
A third group was of radicals who aimed at transforming the system due to their strictly critical position against the inappropriate use of power by monarchs. They were the advocates of democracy and wanted to bring an end to the monarchy (Palmer, 2018). Hence, their position was totally different from the viewpoint held by two other groups mentioned earlier.
Hence, the environment was marked by polarization even before the revolution began. In such a polarized environment, it was hard to address the interest of every party after the revolution ended on the removal of monarchs and the new government took over (Davidson, 2018). Hence, there were several threats to any group that came into power from multiple parties. While seen from this perspective, it was hard for the French Revolution to end in stability.
Government Failing to Build Consensus
As mentioned earlier, the political background of France before and after the revolution is full of polarization. This has always been a threat to the government. When power was taken away from the monarchs and republican came into power, it was important for them to take every party into confidence. However, it failed to take people into confidence. As the government formed, it decided to replace the old judges, tax collectors, and Royal Guard by new ones (Bertaud, 2019). This was a radical decision by the government which challenged its own position as republican setup.
As the new government brought changes to the system and brought new people in, old people were still continuing their jobs. In other words, there was no legal way to disqualify the old judges, tax collectors, and the royal guard. At the same time, replacement of old royal guard with a new National Guard also was controversial. This controversy was also critical as it was heavily criticized by different parties (Palmer, 2018). This means that the government itself started to inappropriately use power. Removal of old people from their posts was nowhere a democratic decision. This could have only been a democratic decision if the government had taken every party into confidence.
These decisions by the government resulted in backlash. This brought about the Region of Terror that lasted until 1994. During the region of terror, people filled with hatred attacked the government officials for their controversial decisions. National Guard repeatedly failed to defend the government against these attacks. The defence policies of the government came into question. The government failed to defend itself and its officials. National Guard became unreliable (Lounissi, 2018). Hence, Republicans utterly failed due to their one-sided agenda.
Resultantly, the government of Directory came into power with a better line of defence. The directory also failed to protect the interest of all parties and people from different groups of interest. They also inappropriately used power and failed to promote the rule of law. Hence, the majority of people felt unsatisfied and brought their case to the army (Latimer & Griffith, 2017). Therefore, it is clear that one-sided measures of each setup that succeeded the royal monarchs provided the base for instability. Neither of the governments could deliver
Suspension of Clergy
Religious authorities were powerful during the reign of monarchs. They were hugely respected by the majority. The governments that came in power after revolution deprived the clergy of its power. The religious authorities were no longer authorities. They lost the rights ...