Sieyes: Bourgeois Disdain for Special Privileges of the Aristocracy

Sieyes asserts that the nobility is a burden to the nation, and not even part of the nation itself. The honorific offices would be much better filled by those who have won the position on merit.

• Well-paid and honorific offices are currently filled by nobles (here called members of the privileged class). The only justification for their occupying of these positions is that the Third Estate is unable or unwilling to take up the offices themselves, but it is known that the Third Estate is perfectly able and willing to do so. The nobls, however, continue to keep them out, saying, "Honors are not for the like of you."
• The privileged order is not helping the government, those posts would be much better filled by those with recognized ability. This would be a system that is based on a meritocracy and infintely better.
• The Third Estate contains within itself all the necessary functions to constitue a nation, it is like a strong man who has been chained. If the nobles are removed, the Third Estate can carry on and progress better than before.
• Sieyes writes, "Nothing will go well without the Third Estate; everything would go considerably better without the two others."
• What is a nation? It is "a body of citizens living under common laws and represented by the same legislative assembly, etc. " According to this statement, the nobility is not even part of the nation because they live under different privileges and exemptions, the nobility calls these rights but they are actually factors that set them apart from the great body of citizens, they set themselves apart from the nation.

Timothy Bulso