The American Revolution was an elitist revolution, which is what made it so remarkable and successful.
The French Revolution was a populist revolution.
The American Revolution was an elitist revolution, which is what made it so remarkable and successful.
The French Revolution was a populist revolution.
They were both populist, the big difference was the Americans had the benefit of several centuries worth of English common law and the Protestant model of self government (decentralized church structure) to build with. The French revolution disposed of all law, creating it anew and had only a Catholic (Roman hiarchcal structure) central church model to build with. The French also posited rights beyond those provided by God in their founding documents, thus creating envy and entitlement as the motive force for society from the start. The Americans were lucky to be largely Protestant and have a secular legal and economic structure based on common law. These are the big reasons America succeeded where France failed. But both revolutions were by definition “populist”. Only one had the tools to evolve beyond the mob.