Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/123

 THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN FRANCE

A. AND H. HAMON College Libre des Sciences sociales, Paris, Universite Nouvelle de Bruxelles.

Political opinion in France is divided into a number of groups, as follows : Royalists or Monarchists, Imperialists, Bonapartists, Catholic Conservatives, Progressist Republicans, Nationalists, Radicals, Socialist Radicals, Reformatory Socialists (Socialistes reformistes), Revolutionary Socialists, and Anarchists.

The Royalists or Monarchists are constantly decreasing in number and influence. For more than half a century France has not had a king. Since 1830 no member of the royal family of Bourbons, and since 1848 no Orleanist, has sat upon the throne. Thus the average Frenchman of the present generation cannot conceive, or at least can conceive only with difficulty, a king reign- ing over France. At most, those who were men before 1870 can imagine France governed by an emperor, by a Bonaparte. They have known an emperor; consequently they can imagine him. To the younger generation the monarchistic or imperialistic idea seems odd. Among the young men the only ones who are still Royalists or Imperialists are so through family tradition. They believe that they must inherit from their fathers their political opinions as well as their revenues and their names.

At the general election of 1898 the number of Monarchists and Bonapartists could be estimated approximately at 1,300,000; that is, 10.6 per cent, of all the electors. It is necessary to note here that all the figures presented in this article are roughly approximate, and must never be considered as having an absolute value. They have been obtained by copying the returns given by the papers at the time of the elections. Sometimes the papers would give wrong figures; at other times they would forget to give all the votes, or all those registered. Often they would report inaccurately the party affiliations of the candidates, whom they would represent as being Socialists or Socialist Radicals,

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