ABSTRACT
Late eighteenth century French and North American republicans shared an intense hostility toward political parties. The transformation of political rules cannot be understood in terms of a desire to eliminate logical inconsistencies in established rules. During the French Revolution, norms concerning the illegitimacy of parties conflicted with a political rule which rewarded those most capable of creating organizations that could mobilize large numbers of voters with public office. During the years from 1795 to 1799, annual national elections prompted the formation of nascent political parties and the first attempts by French republicans to legitimize political parties. Among the founders of the American Republic, a political discourse which invoked "the public interest", rather than the "general will of the nation", was used to elaborate a unitary vision of politics. The character and internal logic of long-term processes—like capitalist industrialization and state formation—impart systematic tendencies and particular trajectories to political institutions.
