AHC: Turning France into a Republic.

So...after the French Revolution and the dissolution of the Monarchy, France tried to stablize itself with their own version of the American Democratic Experiment, but this practically collapsed in on itself itno a dictatorship and the eventual rise of Napoleon and his Empire....then a monarchy again, then a Republic....then a monarchy....it keeps repeating itself...

But what ioff France was actually more successful in imbedding the Republican ideals onto the politicians and populace of France, and actually kept with the Republican/Democratic ideology, and copying the United States in an almost exact manner, becoming a stable Republic in Europe

So let us say that from @1800 or so, they establish a perfect Republic, with its own constitution, and follow in the example of the United States with Presidents who serve for either four or six year terms.

Now although the whole process of how they accomplish this is what i want discussed, who exactly would be the Founding Fathers of such a republic, and who would be expected to be the first President?
 
So...after the French Revolution and the dissolution of the Monarchy, France tried to stablize itself with their own version of the American Democratic Experiment, but this practically collapsed in on itself itno a dictatorship and the eventual rise of Napoleon and his Empire....then a monarchy again, then a Republic....then a monarchy....it keeps repeating itself...

But what ioff France was actually more successful in imbedding the Republican ideals onto the politicians and populace of France, and actually kept with the Republican/Democratic ideology, and copying the United States in an almost exact manner, becoming a stable Republic in Europe

So let us say that from @1800 or so, they establish a perfect Republic, with its own constitution, and follow in the example of the United States with Presidents who serve for either four or six year terms.

Now although the whole process of how they accomplish this is what i want discussed, who exactly would be the Founding Fathers of such a republic, and who would be expected to be the first President?

Tricky. The problem with the French Revolution is that they had no real experience of even a limited parliamentary democracy. It can be argued that the American Revolution was the logical offshoot of the Glorious Revolution, which was in turn born out of the Civil Wars of the 1640’s. So for the UK there is a background of political change/expression. The French lacked that on a meaningful basis. So when they tried it out then idealism ran riot for a bit and then as chaos set in the Committee for Public Safety, or whatever its official name was, rose up and went raving mad.
To have a proper functioning representative democracy in France at this time you’d need some history of semi-regular national elections somewhere along the line before then. Perhaps a more successful Fronde movement that’s not led by aristocratic tossers?
 
So...after the French Revolution and the dissolution of the Monarchy, France tried to stablize itself with their own version of the American Democratic Experiment

The French First Republic is definitly not a "version of the American Democratic Experiment".
 
There were a lot of calm, reasonable and intelligent leaders during the early stages. Unfortunately, they all died of natural causes early on (Mirabeau et al), were forced to flee when the radicals took charge (Lafayette et al), or ended up being guillotined (Condorcet et al). In addition, most of those people actually favored a constitutional monarchy based on the British example.

As soon as the king attempted the flight to Varennes, all of the reasonable politicians were suspected by the radicals of being involved. And from there on out, it only got worse. Preventing the flight to Varennes, and having the king co-operate with the revolutionary regime, seems like your best bet. That keeps cooler heads in charge for longer, allows something like the Girondin Consitution of 1793 to be adopted, both of which give France far more stability. Problem is, this is pretty much the recipe for a functional constitutional monarchy, rather than the republic you are looking for.

The French revolutionary era was so utterly turbulent, it is difficult to get it stabilized once things get out of hand. So you either get a stable constitutional monarchy early on, or you get a very messy republican era. The first alternative will almost certainly mean an alliance with Britain (because Britain will see it as France's version of the Glorious Revolution), the second will almost certainly mean war with Britain (because Britain will see it as France's version of Cromwellian regicides taking charge).

Any outcome other than one of these two is very difficult to achieve. Why do you think I've been writing all these philosophy- and economy-related entries regarding France in my own TL? ;) Without major groundwork done in advance, it is very hard to alter France's destiny at this point, except by way of constitutional monarchy.

It's not impossible, however. Never let anyone tell you something is impossible. Conceivably, the French could get their constitutional monarchy, and then vote to make it a republic after all. It's just that once a constitutional monarchy is established, and works... people are going to be less pushy about establishing a republic.

But suppose they want a republic after all, and vote to dismiss the king. As long as the institutional framework (government bodies, electoral system, etc.) is already in place, and the king is more disliked than hated (and therefore not executed, but given a pension and a little island somewhere), Britain and Austria might just decide it's not worth the trouble to fight over. The French constitution is altered, the king gets an early retirement, France gets a Consul/President/Directory/whatever.

Mind you, the new republic would have to be careful not to start shouting (or even whispering) about expanding to the Rhine and all that, because that would mean war. And to really get stable and democratic, a period of peace and trade would really be the best advice.
 
Not possible. Even if moderate elements had prevailed from the outset of the Revolution, they would have been forced to turn to some kind of oligarchic structure to stem the infectious tide of radicalism. This is witnessed in OTL in the sad case of the Directory.
 
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