In France, we have been accustomed to be governed unduly, without mercy and beyond misery.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 7, pages 212 to 213 (in French)
La République française, February 27th, 1848

Here is a very short article in which Frédéric Bastiat assesses the situation two days after the Second Republic was proclaimed. He wanders the streets of Paris and notes that, despite the absence of a well established government, the provisory anarchy that appears is welcomed by the people who, not only seems to be happy but is also showing great responsibility towards order. While the police is nowhere to be seen because of the uncertainties created by the institutional transition, daily life resumes peacefully.

This is the context in which Frédéric Bastiat acknowledges that the announced chaos did not settle and that the freedom newly acquired by the people can be welcomed with optimism. One may regret however that this is not going to last long and that if he understands that the situation is living proof that government can be reduced, the latter will come back in force in the following decades and century. Nowadays still, the French in their majority are so accustomed to the presence of government that they cannot imagine it retracting without being replaced, despite Thomas Sowell asking: “When someone removes a cancer, what do you replace it with?”