The Committee of Public Safety

In April 1793 the Convention created the Committee of Public Safety to direct the war and government in an emergency. Its membership changed, but from summer 1793 it was dominated by twelve men, including Robespierre, Saint-Just, Couthon and Carnot. In October the Convention declared the government 'revolutionary until the peace', suspending the democratic Constitution of 1793 that had been approved by referendum but never applied.

A December 1793 law centralised power further, giving the Committee control over ministers and local officials, while representatives on mission enforced its will in the provinces. Its partner, the Committee of General Security, oversaw policing. The Committee achieved remarkable results in mobilising armies and supplies, but it did so through coercion, censorship and terror. Historians debate whether it was an emergency government responding to real dangers or an early model of dictatorship justified by ideology.