. In France, the break may have been more abrupt, none theless it was a financial crisis that led the monarchy to convene the Estates-General, reviving an institution which was known to be effective at creating a sense of obligation. Moreover, there are good grounds for thinking that the electoral techniques employed by
representative governments had their origins in medieval elections, both those of "Assemblies of Estates" and those practiced by the Church (rather than in the elections of the Roman republic, for example)