Abstract

The return of an interest in political-institutional themes inside of studies that touch on the Atlantic Revolutions has in recent years produced a series of important works that, however, still leave some questions open. Was there contamination between the first constitutional experiments in the Old World and across the ocean in the New World? Was there contamination between the first referendum consultations in the ex-colonies and those planned and performed in France? For different but equally relevant reasons, both the plan of practice as much as that of ideas point to the figure and work of Nicolas de Condorcet (1743-1794). Aspects of his republican constitutional project, in particular the ideation of a "new institution of popular participation", are at the center of this contribution.