Was A Party System During The French Directory Possible?

[Christian]

I've been really fixated on Isser Woloch's Jacobin Legacy: The Democratic Movement Under the Directory and one thing he believes is that, aside from the Jacobins, or in this case, democrats, not being as dead as previously believed, he also states that they were in the process of forming a true party. He even quotes Vatar, saying that while factions are bad as they are attacking the constitution, parties can actually be good as they are merely against the men in power.

Yet, he also states that the formation of a stable party, or just the nucleus of it, it was disrupted by the Floreal coup against the Jacobins, not letting them take their seats and igniting some old and new hatreds.

So, do you guys think that there really could have been a possibility of a party forming under the Directory? Not just a label thrown at outsiders, but legitimate parties like the Whigs, or the Federalists or Democrats?

 

[SenatorChickpea]

I think that a key reason for the instability of the Republican governments was the combination of external and internal threats; there were occasions when the war was going well, and there were occasions when a government felt somewhat secure and stable, but there weren't really any moments when both was true.

This meant that any change in the political status quo carried the risk of an army marching in from the borders. That army might even be one raised by the French Republic, whether its general is monarchist or personally ambitious or what have you.

So I think that for a party system to emerge you need a situation where people don't believe that they'll either be guillotined by political opponents or conquered by the enemy.

So at the least, you need some sort of Peace of Amiens situation. That also means that the Directors might feel confident that the laurels of victory will mean they can win in fair elections, so they don't need to crack down too hard on the Jacobins- and monarchists will be discredited by France 'winning' the wars.

Easier said than done, but that's my initial reaction.

 

[SenatorChickpea]

To get more concrete- is there some way to break up the coalitions in the mid 1790s?

If Austria or Prussia are suddenly worried about Russia for some reason (something over Poland?) then at least one of them might look for a face-saving peace with France. The other sticks around a bit longer, gets defeated as the republican military machine becomes a juggernaut and Britain decides to lick its wounds for a year or two to rebuild.

This is probably a recipe for a very dominant Carnot, mind.