In 1789 Louis XVI summoned the Estates General, a body with three estates. Which description matches its voting arrangement?

• A. Each estate had one vote.
• B. Votes were proportional to population.
• C. Only the third estate could vote.
• D. All estates voted together with equal representation.

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is how the Estates General decided its votes. In 1789, each of the three estates—the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners—had one vote, regardless of how many people each estate represented. This meant that the First and Second Estates could together outvote the Third Estate, even though the Third Estate made up the vast majority of the population. That unequal voting setup helped fuel calls for reform and set the stage for the revolutionary shift toward more representative voting later on. The other descriptions don’t fit because voting wasn’t by population, it wasn’t limited to the third estate, and the estates did not vote together with equal representation.