To a certain extent Napoleon maintaned the aims of the revolution howewer there are valid arguments on both sides of this issue. He maintaned the main principle of the french revolution which was to establish a constitution and besides provided France with a sturctured law system. On the other hand in 1804 he crowned himself emperor which was against the idea of equality and soon France was under the control of one man, which rememberd people to the hated feature of the Ancien Régime. Some people consider Napoleon as the sun of the revolution as he carried on the beneficial aspects of the French Revolution of 1789. Others see him as just another tyrant who betrayed the ideals of the revolution, suppressing elections and bringing back the monarchy and aristocracy. It is true that he tried to follow revolutionary ideas to please the public howewer his domestic policy was sometimes contradictory to liberal ideas and was rather unrevolutioanry.
In 1800 Napoleon established the Constitution of Year VIII and set up a system based on representative government. This was the key principle of the french revolution, to ensure political equality and universal suffrage. In theory Napoleon followed the aims of the revolution and gave the people what they wanted howewer in reality everything worked differently. The idea of popular sovereignty was a false picture to drove attention from Napoleon’s supremacy yet people still believed that they possessed political influence. He ensured that members of the Council of State and Senate were all loyal to him. By the time he became Emperor the Legislature was not more than a talking-shop while the abolition of the Tribunate helped him to secure his position as an absolute ruler. The revolutionaries were extremely impressed by the new constitution because in theory it matched with revolutioanry aims and indeed the main point of the revolution was to establish a constitution. Howewer the government as everything else was firmly in...