The Honorverse is frequently characterized as "Hornblower in space", with the Kingdom of Manticore playing the role of the British Empire, and its principal antagonist, the Republic of Haven, naturally occupying the role of post-revolutionary France. This identification of Haven was further emphasized by introducing motifs like the "Committee of Public Safety", which echoes the "Comité de salut public" which governed France during the Reign of Terror.
However, other aspects of Haven do not fit this template so well. In particular Haven is principally motivated by providing a Basic Living Stipend to all its citizens, which is much more characteristic of a socialist state. Weber commented on this in an interview with SF Crowsnest, remarking that:
(M)any people initially insisted that the People's Republic of Haven
was the Soviet Union. Then when I introduced Rob S. Pierre and the
Committee of Public Safety, everyone said -- "Aha! It was really
Revolutionary France, all long!" Except, of course, for the people who
thought that I'd made a sudden deliberate change in the paradigm I was
using for the novels.
Actually, I'd done no such thing. From the very outset, the Republic
of Haven was more an example of the United States of America after a
couple of centuries of deficit spending by politicians who had cut an
unscrupulous deal with the managers of a massive welfare state in
return for permanent, hereditary political power for themselves and
their heirs.
So the "Word of God" is that Haven is neither post-revolutionary France nor the Soviet Union, but an extrapolation of the USA in which, somewhat improbably, it is bankrupting itself by supporting a massive welfare state.
As pointed out in a comment by the OP, Weber gives further details of the inspiration for the political structure of Haven in the FAQ on his web-page. In particular:
the parallels between Revolutionary France and the British Empire, on
the one hand, and the Republic of Haven and the Star Kingdom of
Manticore, on the other, are (deliberately) far from a perfect match
There are obvious resonances, but although there are some distinct
similarities between the People's Republic of Haven and Revolutionary
France (and especially between the Jacobins and the Havenite Committee
of Public Safety under one Rob S. Pierre) France was never the actual template upon which the People's Republic had been imposed.
Most tellingly
Mind you, I did my very best to fling out as many
red herrings as possible to convince readers that it was
So the "Jacobin trappings" are indeed not merely trappings, but are actual pieces of misdirection for the reader.
