Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

On August 26, 1789, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was adopted by the French National Assembly, which also was known as the Constituent Assembly, owing to its self-appointed task of framing a constitution for the French nation. This body began as one of three Estates, or orders, within the Estates-General, which had been convened in early May by King Louis XVI. The three orders of which the Estates-General consisted were the nobility, the clergy, and the Third Estate, made up of all other French citizens.

This remarkable event—the summoning of the Estates-General, the first since 1614—was precipitated by the bankruptcy of the French government and its desperate need to raise revenue. The crown's attempts to levy taxes on those who could afford them generated a power struggle with the nobility (especially the reform-minded Parlement of Paris), and both sides decided they had something to gain by convening an Estates-General. Events, however, soon took on a life of their own as both the King and the aristocracy found themselves unable to control the course of events. (Acton, 2000)

The Third Estate first acted in a revolutionary manner on June 17, when, by a majority of 491 to 89, it renamed itself the National Assembly. Although deputies from the other two orders were invited to join the National Assembly—and were later ordered to do so by Louis XVI after he had lost a significant political battle—this assumption of political sovereignty by the Third Estate was a clear sign that a number of ancient legal privileges that the crown and nobility possessed would not be permitted to stand. Indeed, many members of the nobility and clergy strongly supported the abolition of feudal privileges and other radical reforms that were about to follow. (Acton, 2000)

The Declaration, which contains 17 articles, is a short document. The preamble describes it as a “solemn declaration [of] the natural, inalienable, and sacred rights of man.” Failures to protect these rights, it notes, are the “sole causes of public misfortunes and the corruption of governments.” By codifying the basic rights and duties of citizens, the Declaration's intent was to legitimize the new French government and to encourage respect for the legislative and executive powers by providing citizens with “simple and incontestable principles” that could be used to evaluate the justice and social utility of governmental institutions and ...