national assembly

national assembly name of a number of past and present constituent or legislative bodies. In France, under the constitutions of the Fourth and Fifth republics, the lower house of parliament has been called the national assembly. Usually, however, the name national assembly has been applied to provisional bodies. Often in times of crisis, when the old order dissolves through decay, war, or revolution, representatives of the people meet to work out a new order. Such was the case in the French Revolution, when members of the States-General proclaimed themselves (1789) a national assembly. The Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848-49 were national assemblies. At the end of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, after the downfall of Napoleon III, France again elected a national assembly, which drew up the basic constitutional laws for the Third Republic. Under the Third Republic the name national assembly applied to joint sessions of the senate and the chamber of deputies. National assemblies framed the republican Weimar constitution of Germany in 1919 and the Bonn constitution for West Germany in 1948-49. For a list of some of the chief legislative bodies of the world, see legislature .

National Assembly The revolutionary assembly formed by members of the Third Estate on 17 June 1789 when they failed to gain the support of the whole of the French STATES-GENERAL. Three days later the members signed the TENNIS COURT OATH. The Assembly was accepted by LOUIS XVI the following month, having added “Constituent” to its title. In August it agreed upon the influential declaration of the RIGHTS OF MAN AND THE CITIZEN and two years later its constitution was accepted by the king. Its reorganization of local government into departments, although long lasting, had less immediate success. Renamed the Legislative Assembly (1791) and the National Convention (1792), it was dominated by the GIRONDINS and the JACOBINS before being replaced by the DIRECTORY in 1795.