The key issue is an assessment of the reasons for the calling of the Estates General and its failure to solve his problems.

Candidates will be quick to note that the Estates General had last met in 1614. Therefore, the convening of the Estates General after over 120 years was certainly not a voluntary move on the part of Louis XVI. His hand was forced by events. In fact, this meeting was long overdue. The major reason was that the long-term problems facing France had reached unacceptable proportions. Most of these problems dated back to the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV. For instance, on the eve of the revolution, France was so deeply indebted, so deeply as to be effectively bankrupt. Extravagant expenditures had created a financial crisis which needed a national rather than an individual solution. The influence of the ideas of the philosophers on 
the third estate had made them politically conscious and dangerous. 

Louis XVI could not afford to ignore them and their grievances. These problems were all compounded by a great scarcity of food in the 1780s. A series of crop failures caused a shortage of grain, consequently raising the price of bread. Because bread was the main source of nutrition for poor peasants this 
led to starvation. This starvation led to bread riots,” which put pressure on the King to convene the Estates General. Louis XVI gave way to pressure. He recalled Necker as director general of finance and ruled that the Estates –General should meet at Versailles in May 1789. The Estates General could not solve the problems presented to it or the grievances because of its composition. The first and second estates still stuck to the old tradition or procedure of voting by estate. This would have advantaged them and wouldrender any drastic reforms impossible. The tow privileged estates failed to appreciate the social and economic development which the bourgeoisie and even the masses had undergone in the previous 150 years. The King himself 
was not committed to seeing drastic solutions to the problems, as he supported the traditional procedure of voting by estate, separately. The nature of the problems, themselves, would have required drastic solutions which would have meant the sweeping away of the system of ancient regime, which the first two privilege estates were not prepared to accept.