Spectres of the republic. On French Republican political thought in the nineteenth century

This article focuses on the French republican political thought at the beginning of the Third French Republic. After Louis Napoleon's 'coup d'état', the republicans tried to establish strong intellectual foundations for a future republic. This needed to be a stable regime that would not repeat neither the revolutionary excesses of the Terror period, nor the authoritarian solutions of Bonapartism. Bearing this in mind, the intellectual founders of the Third Republic had to face the legacy of 1789 and, therefore, had to establish a republican memory capable of integrating all those who, during most of the nineteenth century, had been lured by the revolution; namely, the mission was to face the spectres that threatened the republics in France.