Declaration of Man

Discussion Questions

1) The French National Assembly responded to the Enlightenment influences starting in 1789. This assembly set out to develop a new government reflecting the ideals of the enlightenment thinkers. The assembly ended the old regime and embraced protecting individual rights. They formed a new political authority utilizing individual rights as the building block. Their goal was to right a constitution which was achieved by 1791. The National Assembly recognizes and proclaims the Supreme Being following the rights of man and of the citizens.

2) The document indicates that the role of man was that they were born with equal rights, but these rights don’t allow impingement on others rights. Man had the freedom to do anything that harms no one, free to communicate ideas and opinions, rights to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. The government’s role was to preserve those rights by liberty, proper security, and resistance to oppression. No one should be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except to the forms of law. Both the government and its citizens stand together with its rights as a nation through the utilization of law.

3) In the document political sovereignty was defined that “sovereignty resides in the nation no body or individual may exercise any authority which doesn’t proceed directly from the nation”. What this statement indicated is that the national assembly recognized a new form of government as having power over a contained geographic area populous of its citizens. This document brought with it not only agreement of the rights of man but also the responsibility of the government. By proclaiming unity the articles in this document cemented the responsibility of both government and its citizens.


The Declaration of the Rights of Man was a document written by the National Assembly at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1791. This document laid the groundwork for equality, freedom of speech, and taxation. This was issued for the free rights of the French people. This document is similar to the United States Constitution written in 1776. The Constitution was written shortly after the American Revolution. The Constitution was written for the common defense, to promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. The first 10 amendments of the Constitution (the Bill of Rights) listed the rights of the people including freedom of the press, religion, to assemble, and petition the government. Both of these constitutions were written during or after a revolution had occurred. This brings pause to make one wonder if the French were not strongly influenced by the new founded nation, America.