ABSTRACT
This chapter presents both sides in a controversy over the coerciveness of the state in governing, which is significant because the use of force can be divisive. It provides readers with some insight into how generally accepted historical interpretations are reached. By Louis XIV’s reign, government offices had become the private property of competing, conflicting individuals and families, thus factionalizing the governing elite. The triumph of Louis XIV’s government was its ability to resolve these conflicts, while conciliating the elite and governing at the same time. Louis XIV’s government suppressed some that were uncooperative, and manipulated the others by flattering, bribing, intimidating and bullying their members. Provincial and municipal institutions, and the central government at Paris, were permeated by networks of personal relationships based on kinship and clientage. The revisionists have suggested that the power balance between the provincial governors and the intendants needs reexamination.
