The country has missed a splendid opportunity to move on, and it will not find it back because I fear that many more thunderstorms are brewing to meet the next assembly.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 7, pages 388 to 390 (in French)
February 3rd, 1849

In this letter where Frédéric Bastiat announces having been nominated at the budget commission, he describes a certain number of political manoeuvres he finds distressing. He does not mention it but the assembly had been disbanded a few days earlier, which is probably the reason why he refers to the next assembly in today’s quote.

Without letting Frédéric Bastiat be accused of not being a great democrat, we can see here some limits of democracy, be it because of the impossibility for a large assembly to agree according to the own conscience of each member or because of the political tactics that are necessary for the government to be able to get ahead with its agenda. There remain some particular circumstances that allow for big moves from time to time (in France, the hundred days following a presidential election are considered to be blessed for government nowadays). According to this letter, Frédéric Bastiat thought that the election of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte on December 10th, 1848 was such a circumstance. Today’s quote shows that it ended up as a missed opportunity.