Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/124

 108 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Radicals or Progressist Republicans, Nationalists or Monarchists. The figures in themselves have, therefore, only questionable value, but as the causes of error are the same for every shade of opinion, it seems to us that the proportion resulting from them gives a fair idea of the division of the parties.

In 1902 there were new parliamentary elections, in which the number of votes cast for Monarchists and Imperialists was reduced to 970,000 ; or 9 per cent, of the total number of electors, which was then 10,800,000. This is still a high figure. It does not, however, exactly represent the real opinion of those included in it. Indeed, in many electoral circuits, especially in the country, the candidate is voted for, not because his political opinions are such and such, but because he is Mr. So-and-so, because he is a great landowner or manufacturer in the district, or because he is rich and spends money freely at the time of the elections. To form a correct idea of the political situation in France, one must take into consideration the fact that political interest is not at all intense among the peasants. The farmer generally cares little about politics, his only concerns being of a material nature. For a long time the rural population was Bonapartistic and imperial- istic, because their economic condition was good under the empire. Now, under the republic, however, their prosperity is just as great; and that is why today a majority of the peasants are devoted to the republic. The countryman is a republican even when he votes for the Royalist or the Bonapartist, the rich man of the district. Still another cause which contributes toward maintaining a rural majority for republicanism is the inertia of the farmers. They do not like to change the existing order of things. They have grown used to the republic, and they wish to keep it. If the large landowner of the region is a Royalist, they will vote for him because they know him, and because they voted for his father, his uncle, and his father-in-law. He would be elected as well if he were a Radical.

These reservations must be made if the reader is to under- stand the relativity of the figures quoted in this article, and is to get a just appreciation of the division of parties in France.

The Royalists are the partisans of a king, and that king is for