The 1789 bicentennial is perhaps a fitting occasion for a critical examination of revolutionary heritage, and for a renewal of political debate in France. As a jurist and an expert on American society, Laurent Cohen-Tanuji shows how the Jacobian ideal of the State serves as an obstacle for transformations that are both necessary and useful for democracy.Laurent Cohen-Tanuji is a lawyer and a member of the New York bar. Though he practices in international economic law, he is also an analyst of French and American institutions, and in 1985 captured public attention with an essay entitled Le Droit sans l'Etat.