Аннотация: Victor Hugo and the universal suffrage in France. Historical and literary essay.
Victor Hugo and the universal suffrage in France. Historical and literary essay.
The The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adopted in France in 1789, approved the list of "natural and inalienable human rights".
The suffrage enshrined in the Constitution of 1791 was not universal. Approximately 15 percent of the population received the right to vote.
The Constitution of 1799, which transferred a state power to the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, established an universal suffrage.
Victor Hugo was born on 26 February 1802. Thus, formally, his birth occurred at the time of the Republic and the operation of the universal suffrage.
In fact, it was the time of the military dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte. Democratic elements existed in a fragmented, undeveloped form.
In may 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte became the First Consul for Life.
The Constitution of 1804 entrusted the administration of the Republic to the Emperor. In 1808, France became the Empire.
Napoleon's Empire was followed by constitutional monarchies with some constitutional guarantees of human rights and freedoms and with limited suffrage.
In 1830, Victor Hugo wrote "the Diary of the revolutionary of 1830".
The revolution of 1848 launched the development and adoption of the Constitution of 1848.
In 1848, Victor Hugo became a deputy of the National Constituent Assembly.
The 1848 Constitution enshrined human rights and freedoms, established universal suffrage.
However, it did not prescribe those legal mechanisms that would ensure the implementation, operation of constitutional ideas. On December 20, 1848, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte took office as President of the Republic.
The Legislative Assembly, elected on the basis of universal suffrage, itself limited this suffrage on May 31, 1850.
Relying on the army and some other social forces, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte dissolved the Legislative Assembly on December 2, 1851.
On January 14, 1852, a 10-year presidential term was established.
On December 2, 1852, the Second Republic ceased to exist, Prince-President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte became Emperor Napoleon III.
Formally, universal suffrage was restored, but in fact an authoritarian regime operated.
Rights and freedoms were significantly limited, there were no democratic mechanisms of power.
Victor Hugo went into exile on December 11, 1851-after trying to organize resistance to the coup d'etat of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte.
Some works, speeches, actions of Victor Hugo during the exile:
January-July 1852. "History of a Crime", " Napoléon le Petit".
31 Oct 1852. Declaration "To the people of France".
November 1854. Speech against the Crimean war.
April 9, 1855. An open letter to Napoleon III.
May 26, 1856. Hugo's Declaration "To Italy".
1859. Hugo's Declaration on the Amnesty declared by Napoleon III, the refusal to return from exile and the refusal of recognition of the Empire.
December 2, 1859. Victor Hugo's letter to the U.S. Congress in defense of John Brown.
June 18, 1860. Speech at a rally on the occasion of the liberation campaign of Garibaldi.
November 17, 1862. Appeal to the Republic of Geneva "Geneva and the death penalty".
February 11, 1863. A call to the Russian army not to fight against the rebellious Poland [Rech Pospolita - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth].
[1867] He had also pleaded for Benito Juárez to spare the captured emperor Maximilian I of Mexico.
May 1869. The publication of the novel "The Man Who Laughs".
September 14-17, 1869. The peace Congress in Lausanne under the presidency of Victor Hugo.
After the fall of Napoleon III, Victor Hugo returned to Paris. September 5, 1870 - a solemn meeting, a greeting the poet by the people.
The 1875 Constitution reintroduced (direct) universal suffrage, enshrined human rights and freedoms, and provided for democratic governance mechanisms.
France has become one of the most free and democratic countries in Europe and the world.
Various reforms continued.
Victor Hugo died in 1885.
Victor Hugo 's life covered the period of the affirmation of universal suffrage in France, from the primitive form (combined with the military dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte) to the developed form (the assertion of the mature republican order - the Third Republic).
December 18, 2019 12:13
Translation from Russian into English: December 18, 2019 13:59.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский "Виктор Гюго и всеобщее избирательное право во Франции. Историко-литературный очерк".