After the French revolution, was there democracy in France?
There was no democracy in France (and very little anywhere) for a long time after the revolution. Even in the USA which had, in principle, universal male suffrage there were a lot of people with dark skins who were excluded by force from all civil and politcal rights. In the UK elections were by modern standards a farce (read any history book about the period). Most of Europe was ruled by autarchic princes with more or less input from advisers and councils. There was a special problem for the French. Revolution led, as it usually does, to oligarchy (government by committee) and then to dictatorship – this also happened with the English civil war and Cromwell, with the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, and so on. The French (poor old them!) got first the Directoire, then Napoleon. The place has hardly recovered to this day.
