The map in the Library of Congress is yellowed and torn.

It's been folded, refolded, and exhaustively annotated.

But the neat grid of streets, cradled in a fork of the Potomac River, is instantly recognizable.

It's the original plan for the new federal city that would become Washington, DC, and

it was designed by a Frenchman.

To create a capital worthy of the new republic, Pierre-Charles Longfont wanted to combine

the scale and grandeur of Versailles with the egalitarian ideals of the revolution.

Classically inspired buildings would house the institutions of the new democracy.

Grand avenues would be accessible to all.

Longfont was one of thousands of French who joined the revolution.

Many then tried to take its ideals back to revolutionary France.

Of course, democracy is a process, not an event.

First French republic lasted only 12 years, and where America has had one constitution since

1787, France has had 14.

But it's learned a thing or two along the way.

Today, the fifth French republic is wrestling to reconcile very different visions of its future,

as the people vote for a new president.

United America now look to France as a model instead.

I'm John Prado, and this is Chex and Balance from the Economist.

Each week we take one big theme shaping American politics and explore it in depth.

Today, it's the French presidential system better than the American one.

In the first round, most French voters opted for anti-establishment candidates.

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