Napoleon Bonaparte was in command of the French Army which gave him a lot of power, something Napoleon knew all too well. In the year 1799, he sensed a chance to win power for himself and made his way back to France where he joined a plot to overthrow the directors and close down the Councils. Napoleon’s Brumaire shows a step against the new revolutionary ideas as it clearly stated there would not be a ‘monarch’. Bonaparte was not a monarch but he did reign like one, wanting all power for himself. He is quoted saying that: “I can no longer obey; I have tasted command and I cannot give it up.” This shows that he knew that he could not reign along with other directors and wanted all power for himself. This was against the one of the ideals of the directory and the terror. On top of this, Robespierre was against giving the army a lot of power because he believed this could result in a take-over: exactly what Napoleon did.
Napoleon ran a very centralised: all focus was supposed to be on him. However, Napoleon claimed that, in principle, the French population was still able to vote (plebiscites).