Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T02:07:25.791Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Subcultural Persistence and Political Cleavage in the Third French Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

David E. Sumler
David E. Sumler
Affiliation:
State Board for Higher Education, Maryland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The theories which have been offered to explain the governmental instability and persistent political fragmentation of the Third Republic have been of two basic types. Either specific institutional structures have been blamed, or the French national character has been cited. Often-mentioned institutional weaknesses have included the multi-party system, the dominance of the legislative branch, the independent and authoritarian civil service, the various electoral systems tried–especially the two-ballot system and proportional representation–and so on. Aspects of political culture which are said to have contributed to instability and ineffective government include an innate distrust of leaders, the avoidance of face-to-face confrontation and compromise, the lack of a training for democracy in voluntary associations, and an authoritarian educational system. The common element in all of these explanations is that they begin at the top; they see France as a uniform society with “average” ways of doing things. That is, these explanations assume that the explanation to instability and fragmentation can be found at the national level by studying the aggregate characteristics of French men and women or by analyzing the political institutions of the nation-state.

Type
Social Structure and Politics in Two Modern Societies
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , October 1977 , pp. 431 - 453
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 David Easton has most thoroughly developed the arguments for the use of systems analysis as well as having offered a comprehensive and coherent theory of his own. For the theoretical background of his theory see Easton, , The Political System (New York: Knopf, 1953)Google Scholar and A Framework for Political Analysis (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1965).Google Scholar Fora detailed discussion of the concepts used herein see his A Systems Analysis of Political Life (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1965).Google Scholar A useful summary and incisive critique of Easton's ideas is offered by Miller, Eugene F., “David Easton's Political Theory,” The Political Science Reviewer, 1 (Fall, 1971), 184–235.Google Scholar One attempt to apply systems theory to a total system is Mitchell's, William C.The American Polity: A Social and Cultural Interpretation (New York: The Free Press, 1962). Mitchell differs from Easton on certain points, especially on the functions to be assigned to the political system.Google Scholar

2 Easton, , Systems Analysis of Political Life, p. 153.Google Scholar

3 Ibid., p. 86.

4 These categories arise from the structural-functional analysis of societies. The reader is referred to Parsons, Talcott, The Social System (New York: The Free Press, 1951)Google Scholar; Parsons, and Shils, Edward A., eds., Toward A General Theory of Action (New York: Harper & Row, Inc., 1962 [1951]Google Scholar; Levy, Marion J. Jr., The Structure of Society (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952)Google Scholar; and, for a brief and easily comprehended introduction, Dobriner, William, Social Structures and Systems (Pacific Palisades, Calif.; Goodyear Publishing Co., Inc., 1969).Google Scholar Two critical articles of the structural approach are by Rothman, Stanley, “Functionalism and Its Critics: An Analysis of the Writings of Gabriel Almond,” The Political Science Reviewer, 1 (Fall, 1971), 236–76Google Scholar, and Flanigan, William and Fogelman, Edwin, “Functional Analysis,” in Contemporary Political Analysis, ed. Charlesworth, James C. (New York: The Free Press, 1967), pp. 72–85.Google Scholar

5 This reasoning is based on psychological theories concerning cognitive construction and cognitive consistency and dissonance. For a structural theory of learning see the works of Jean Piaget, especially The Moral Judgment of the Child, trans. Gabain, Marjorie (New York: The Free Press, 1965)Google Scholar and the analysis of Piaget in Flavell, John H., The Developmental Psychology of Jean Piaget (New York: D. VanNostrand, 1963).CrossRefGoogle Scholar Theories of cognitive consistency relate to both intrapersonal structures and interpersonal relations. A good introduction to these theories is the collection of articles in Robert Abelson, P. et al. , eds., Theories of Cognitive Consistency: A Sourcebook (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1968).Google Scholar

6 A few among these are Pierre Barral, Le Département de I'sère sous la IIIe République, 1870–1940: Histoire sociale et politique (Paris: A. Colin, 1962)Google Scholar; Bois, Paul, Paysans de V Ouest: Des Structures économiques et sociales aux options politiques depuis I'époque révolutionnaire dans la Sarthe (Le Mans: Impr. M. Vilaire, 1963)Google Scholar; Georges Dupeux, Aspects de Vhistoire sociale et politique de Loir-et-Cher, 1848–1914 (Paris: Impr. Nationale, 1962)Google Scholar; Pataut, Jean, Sociologie electorate de la Nievre au XXe siecle, 1902–1951 (Paris: Editions Cujas, 1956).Google Scholar

7 Goguel, , Géographie des elections françaises, 1870–1951 (Paris: A. Colin, 1951).Google Scholar

8 This definition of “culture” and “subculture” is an adaptation of the theory of social action contained in Parsons, and Shils, , eds., Toward A General Theory of Action, pp. 56–60, 159–89.Google Scholar My ideas have greatly been clarified, however, by many suggestive passages in Shibutani, Tomatsu and Kwan, Kian M., Ethnic Stratification (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1965).Google Scholar

9 Pear, T. H., English Social Differences (London: George Allen Unwin Ltd., 1955), Chapter 3.Google Scholar

10 Shibutani, and Kwan, , op. cit., pp. 204–05.Google Scholar

11 Shibutani, and Kwan, , op. cit., Part IIGoogle Scholar: “Differentiating Processes” and Part III: “Sustaining Processes;” also see Barth, Fedrik, ed., Ethnic Groups and Boundaries (Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1969).Google Scholar

12 Almond, G. and Verba, S., The Civic Culture: Public Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations (Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1965).Google Scholar

13 Roig, Charles and Billon-Grand, Françoise, La Socialisation politique des enfants (Paris: A. Colin, 1968).Google Scholar

14 Jaros, Dean, Hirsch, Herbert, and Fleron, Frederick. J. Jr, “The Malevolent Leader: Political Socialization in an American Sub-culture,” American Political Science Review, 62 (June, 1968), 564–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Green, Eugene, “The Political Socialization of Black Inner-City Children,” in Orum, Anthony M., The Seeds of Politics: Youth and Politics in America (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1972), pp. 180–94.Google Scholar

16 See Siegfried, , Tableau politique de la France de I'Ouest sous la Troisième République (Paris: A. Colin, 1913)Google Scholar and Géographie électorate de I'Ardêche sous la Troisieme République (Paris: A. Colin, 1949).Google Scholar Handbooks on this method are Goguel, Francois, Initiation aux recherches de géographie électorate (Paris: Centre d'etudes sociologiques, 1947)Google Scholar and Goguel, Francois and Dupeux, Georges, Sociologie electorate (Paris: A. Colin, 1951).Google Scholar

17 The Glassworkers of Carmaux: French Craftsmen and Political Action in a Nineteenth-Century City (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974).Google Scholar

18 The Red and the White: Report From a French Village, trans. Sheridan-Smith, A. M. (New York: Random House, Inc., 1970)Google Scholar, originally published in 1967 as Commune en France: La Metamorphose de Plodemet (Paris: Librairie Fayard).Google Scholar

19 Wylie, Laurence, ed., Chanzeaux: A Village in Anjou (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1966).CrossRefGoogle Scholar Other extremely useful local studies include Higgonet, Patrice, Pont-de-Montvert: Social Structure and Politics in a French Village, 1700–1914 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971)Google Scholar; Berger, Suzanne, Peasants and Politics: Rural Organization in Brittany, 1911–1967 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; the several studies of Valloire in Bailey, F. G., ed., Gifts and Poison (London: Basil Blackwell, 1971)Google Scholar; an anthropological study by Lucien Bemot and Blancard, René, Nouville: Un Village français (Paris: Institut d'ethnologie, 1953).Google Scholar

20 Klatzman, Joseph, “Geographie electorate de Pagriculture francaise,” in Les Pay sans et la politique dans la France contemporaine, eds. Fauvet, Jacques and Mendras, Henri (Paris: A. Colin, 1958), pp. 39–66Google Scholar; Dogan, Mattei, “Political Cleavage and Social Stratification in France and Italy,” in Party Systems and Voter Alignments, eds. Lipset, Seymour M. and Rokkan, Stein (New York: The Free Press, 1967), pp. 129–96Google Scholar, and “Covariance Analysis of French Electoral Data,” in Quantitative Ecological Analysis in the Social Sciences, eds. Dogan, Mattei and Rokkan, Stein (Cambridge, Mass.: The M.I.T. Press, 1969), 285–98.Google Scholar

21 Klatzman, ibid, pp. 65–66; Dogan, , “Political Cleavage …,” pp. 134–35.Google Scholar

22 The supporting data for the argument presented in the following pages can be found in the author's, “Subcultures and Political Parties in the Department of Nord (France), 1900–1914,” Ethnicity, 2:4 (December 1975), 382–404.Google Scholar

23 Blache, P. Vidal de la, Geographie universelle, vol. VIGoogle Scholar: La France, Part II (Paris: A. Colin, 1948).Google Scholar

24 The author has done a study of voting behavior in the Nord in the 1910 and 1914 elections. In addition, a series of theses written by students at the University of Lille provide a foundation for generalizations about social attitudes and voting behavior in the Nord from 1885 to 1914: Néré, J., “Les Élections Boulanger dans le département du Nord” (Thèse complimentairé, Universite de Paris, 1952)Google Scholar; Vandenbussche, R., “ L e Radicalisme dans le departement du Nord” (Diplôme d'études superieures, Universite de Lille, 1964)Google Scholar; Becquart, P., “ Les Elections legislatives dans le departement du Nord en 1893 et 1898” (Diplôme d'études superieures, Université de Lille, 1959)Google Scholar; Juliantet, D.Note, J. P., “Les Elections législatives de 1906 dans le Nord” (Maîtrise d'histoire, Université de Lille, 1970)Google Scholar; and Carton, G., “Les Elections législatives a Lille en 1914” (Diplôme d'études supérieures, Université de Lille, 1968).Google Scholar

25 For the purpose of a comparable analysis of all constituencies, the multitude of parties engaged in legislative elections was organized into three “political tendencies:” liberal reformers (Radicals, Radical-Socialists, Independent Radicals, Democratic Republican Alliance)Google Scholar; collective reformers (Socialists, Independent Socialists)Google Scholar; and conservatives (Republican Federation, Progressist Party, Action Liberale).Google Scholar

26 The votes used were the votes cast on the first ballot of the national legislative elections of 1910 and 1914. The first ballot only was used because it reflects the free selection of the electorate; since the voter may vote his preference on the first ballot, while he may be required to make compromises on the second ballot when the field has been narrowed to only two major candidates.

27 Joppe, Andr´e, Conditions de Salaire et de Travail des ouvriers agricoles dans le departementdu Nord (Lille: Impr.de Camille Robbe, 1910)Google Scholar; Vandenbussche, Robert, “Le Radicalisme dans le Nord” (Diplômed'étudessuperieures, Universite de Lille, 1964)Google Scholar; Vezin, C. and Vandame, P., V Agriculture dans le département du Nord (Lille-Loos: Impr. L. Danel, 1938).Google Scholar

28 Menager, Bernard, La Laicisation des ecoles communales dans le departement du Nord (1879–1899) (Lille: Université des sciences humaines, les lettres et des arts de Lille, 1971), “Annexe cartographique: Les Effectifs des ecoles congreganistes en 1899.”Google Scholar

29 Coornaert, Emile, La Flandre française de langue flamande (Paris: les Editions ouvrieres, 1970)Google Scholar; Mayeur, Jean-Marie, Un Prêtre démocratique, l'Abbé Lemire, 1853–1928 (Tournai: Casterman, 1968).Google Scholar

30 Pierrard, Pierre, La Vie ouvrière à Lille sous le Second Empire (Paris: Bloud & Gay, 1965)Google Scholar and Lille et les Lillois (Paris: Bloud & Gay, 1967)Google Scholar; Willard, Claude, Les Guesdistes: le Mouvement socialiste en France (1893–1905), (Paris: Editions sociales, 1965)Google Scholar; Ameye, J., La Vie politique à Tourcoing sous la Troisieme Republique (Lille: Imprimerie SILIC, 1963).Google Scholar

31 Goguel, , Géographic des élections françaises, (rev. ed.: Paris: A. Colin, 1970), pp. 144–63.Google Scholar

32 Centre d'étude de la vie politique française, Les égislatives de Mars 1967 (Paris: A. Colin, 1970), pp. 350–61.Google Scholar

33 Boulard, F., An Introduction to Religious Sociology, trans. Jackson, M. J. (London: Dartman, Longman and Todd, 1960), pp. 45–52, 66–68, and Maps 1 and 5.Google Scholar

34 France, , Chamber of Deputies, No. 385 (Annexe): Programmes, Professions defoi, et Engagements électoraux de 1910 (Paris: Impr. de la Chambre des députes, 1910), pp. 671–712.Google Scholar

35 Nouville, , Un Village français (Paris: Institut d'ethnologie, 1953).Google Scholar

36 Ibid., pp. 290–95, 332–58.

37 Peasants Against Politics: Rural Organization in Brittany, 1911–1967 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972).Google Scholar

38 Ibid., pp. 18–19.

39 Bois, , op. cit.Google Scholar, Barral, , op. cit.Google Scholar, Micheu-Puyou, Jean, Histoire électorate du département des Basses-Pyrénées sous la IIIe et la IVe République (Paris: R. Pichon, et R. Durand-Anzias, 1965)Google Scholar; Siegfried, André, Géographie électorate de l'Ardèche sous la Troisième République; and Schram, Stuart R., Protestantism and Politics in France (Alencon: Impr. de Corbiere et Jugain. 1954), which includes a study of the departement of Gard.Google Scholar

40 Two excellent discussions of the maintenance of subcultures can be found in Shibutani and Kwan, , op. cit.Google Scholar, and Schermerhorn, R. A., Comparative Ethnic Relations: A Framework for Theory and Research (New York: Random House, 1970).Google Scholar

41 Wolfenstein, Martha, “French Parents Take Their Children to the Park,” in Childhood in Contemporary Cultures, eds. Mead, Margaret and Wolfenstein, Martha (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955), p. 99.Google Scholar

42 Métraux, Rhoda and Mead, Margaret, Themes in French Culture: A Preface to a Study of French Community, Hoover Institute Studies, Series D: Communities, 1 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1954), pp. 1–6.Google Scholar

43 Ibid., p. 32; Bernot, and Blancard, , op. cit., pp. 112–13Google Scholar; Wylie, Laurence, Village in the Vaucluse (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1964), pp. 38.Google Scholar

44 Op. cit., p. 403.Google Scholar

45 MacRae, Ducan Jr, Parliament, Parties, and Society in France, 1946–1958 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1967), pp. 332–33.Google Scholar

46 Metraux, and Mead, , op. cit., p. 2.Google Scholar

47 Ibid., pp. 27–28; 34–39; Fraser, W. R., Education and Society in Modern France, (London: Routledge, 1963), p. 21.Google Scholar

48 Noonan, Lowell G., France: The Politics of Continuity in Change (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1970), pp. 83–86.Google Scholar

49 Metraux, and Mead, , op. cit., pp. 34–35.Google Scholar

50 MacRae, , op. cit., pp. 29–30.Google Scholar

51 Rose, Arnold M., Theory and Method in the Social Sciences (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1954), pp. 76–77, 98–103Google Scholar; Wylie, . ed., Chanzeaux, p. 196Google Scholar; Bettleheim, Charles and Frere, Suzanne, Un Ville moyenne: Auxerre en 1950 (Paris: A. Colin, 1950), pp. 247, 252.Google Scholar

52 Scott, , op. cit., pp. 98–99.Google Scholar

53 Wylie, , ed., Chanzeaux, p. 196.Google Scholar

54 Hutson, John, “A Politician in Valloire,” in Gifts and Poison, ed. Bailey, F. G. (London: Basil Blackwell, 1971), p. 74.Google Scholar

55 In addition to the studies already cited, see Thabault, Roger, Education and Change in a Village Community: Mazieres–en–Gatine, 1848–1914 (New York: Schocken Books, 1971), pp. 42, 47–48, 164–67.Google Scholar

56 Op. cit., pp. 282–83, 290–95, 332–58.Google Scholar

57 Op. cit., pp. 141–43.Google Scholar

58 Chevalier, Louis, Laboring Classes and Dangerous Classes in Paris During the First Half of the Nineteenth Century, trans. Jellinek, F. (New York: Howard Fertig, 1973)Google Scholar; Pierrard, , Lille et les Lillois; Scott, Glassworkers of Carmaux; and Duveau, La Vie ouvriere én France sous la Second Empire (Paris: Librairie Gallimard. 1946).Google Scholar

59 Op. cit., pp. 110, 117.Google Scholar

60 See chapter, Easton's on “Cleavage as a Source of Stress,” Systems Analysis of Political Life, pp. 230–43.Google Scholar

61 Sculle, Keith A., “French Anticlericalism After the Separation of Church and State (1906–1910)” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois-Urbana, 1972), p. 259.Google Scholar

62 Ibid., pp. 239–240.

63 Larmour, , The French Radical Party in the 1930's (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964), p. 18.Google Scholar

64 Ibid., p. 19.