ON WHAT PINCIPLES DID THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SEEK TO RESTRUCTURE FRENCH GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY IN THE YEARS 1789-91? When the National Assembly established a dominant position in the running of the French state in 1789, they needed to move quickly to reform the old state around them into one that corresponded to the political views held within the new Assembly members. A ‘principle’ or origin from which all remodelling could take form from, and that would justify the actions of the Assembly to the people as they began reconstructing the state into a ‘ uniform, decentralised, representative and humanitarian system’ was needed. The question being asked is for us to define this principl