Abbes Sieyes

The Declaration was a treatise bearing the collective signature of the National Assembly’s deputies aiming to enshrine the values of civic equality to replace the old regime’s adherence to privilege. Despite being written collectively, the moderate deputies of the National Assembly were the most influential in producing the document; the prominent figure being the Abbes Sieyes.

Moderate influence on the Declaration is apparent from the first article. The Declaration stipulates that while men are born equal; social distinctions can still occur through ‘common utility’. The Declaration replaces the idea of privilege as justification for social hierarchy with the idea of social utility. An individual that is at the top of the hierarchy is there

Indeed, equality itself is not one of the imprescriptible rights that the Declaration proclaims. The ambiguity of equality may have served to obfuscate the interests of the men who wrote the document. Article six asserts the citizen’s right to participate in the formation of their government. However, this is not the case due to the later property franchise that distinguished a citizen’s right to vote on the basis of their wealth. There appears to be a conflict between the Declaration seemingly bestowing political equality and the later constitution enshrining political inequality through wealth. Perhaps the answer lies in the deputies’ attempt to use universal language. For instance, when referring to ‘men’, the Declaration is making a universal point on everyone while also really being only about men. The later constitution of 1791 prevents all women irrespective of their wealth from voting. Likewise, when the Declaration uses ‘citizen’, it is perhaps only referring to active citizens. The reason for this apparent oversight lies within the deputies’ preoccupation with social utility. They viewed groups like women, peasants, and urban workers as little use to society. While these groups would enjoy civic equality, political equality was the preserve of those deemed as more useful. The Declaration is certainly revolutionary in its language of universality however its content belies a far more moderate