The article is devoted to the problem of the relationship between liberalism and democracy in France during the July Monarchy (1830–1848). The study focuses on the position of the French moderate Orleanist liberals, supporters of Louis-Philippe d'Orleans, who became the king of the French as a result of the July Revolution of 1830. Analyzing the works of such Orleanist leaders as F. Guizot, P.-P. Royer-Collard, and others, the author of the article considers how representative government and popular sovereignty, qualified democracy and universal suffrage – the key principles of the political regime of the July Monarchy, were related in France at that time. The article concludes that moderate Orleanist liberals professed the ideas of natural inequality of people, supported the qualified electoral system, and had a negative attitude towards the idea of popular sovereignty and democracy as the legitimization of the power of the majority. The Orleanists were supporters of the sovereignty of reason and justice, the bearers of which they considered to be representatives of the middle class. At the same time, the Orleanists deliberately interpreted the category of "middle class" very broadly, smoothing over the social contradictions that existed in society. Democracy as the power of the people, in their opinion, could only lead society to anarchy and dictatorship, as well as to the leveling of the merits of each individual. The Orleanists were supporters of a democracy with qualifications, strictly linking property and political rights. The author of the article concludes that the concept of the liberal Orleanists turned out to be elitist, while the ideas of democratization of the political system were popular in society. The unresolved issue of suffrage became fatal in many ways for the regime of the July Monarchy. At the same time, it was the Orleanists who prepared the ground for the further democratization of French society.

The article was written on the basis of the RANEPA state assignment research program.