Note all of those 'short lived top down, regimes' ended in minor revolutions as well with the people taking the power back from the top, the outcome eventually

Note all of those 'short lived top down, regimes' ended in minor revolutions as well with the people taking the power back from the top, the outcome eventually establishing a Democratic Republic. The French Revolution was the key and laid the groundwork to the eventual Democratic Republic by establishing the Rights of Man, the first French Constitution, and destroying aristocratic society from top to bottom, along with its structure of dependencies and privileges. We can nitpick all we want about the various intermediary forms of govt but the ultimate outcome from the French Revolution was the French Democratic Republic, which laid the groundwork militarily, philosophically, and culturally.