La " Convention ambulante "
In: Annales historiques de la Révolution Française, Band 332, Heft 1, S. 55-70
ISSN: 1952-403X
Michel Biard, The «Roving Convention », a Bulwark to Despotic Executive Power ?
Many historians feel that Year II is a prime example of a time when the power of the executive was somehow confiscated by an all-powerful Committee of Public Safety, who exercised a dictatorship of national salvation on behalf of the Convention by relying to the full on the action of the representatives on mission. This article attempts to show the place and role of these deputies, and the confusion of powers implicit in their action. It appears, in effect, that this "roving Convention", which took part in the implementation and defence of the "revolutionary government", never intended to do away with the organs of executive power, nor were the deputies on mission simply stooges of the central power.