Active and Passive Citizens: Who Counted?

Having declared that all men were equal in rights, the National Assembly then decided who could vote. In late 1789 it divided men into 'active' citizens, aged 25 or over and paying direct taxes worth at least three days' local wages, and 'passive' citizens, who enjoyed civil rights but could not vote. Higher property thresholds applied to electors and deputies.

Roughly four million men qualified as active citizens, a broad franchise for the time but one that excluded the poorest men and all women. Critics such as Robespierre argued that this contradicted the Declaration. The assembly extended civil rights to Protestants in December 1789 and to all Jews in September 1791, after long debate. The distinction between rights held by all and political power held by some reveals a key tension between liberal and democratic ideas in the Revolution.