12 Representing Peasants and Farmers: Parties, Movements, and Leaders Across Europe

Abstract

Over the twentieth century, politicians of various ideological beliefs and party denominations have claimed to represent “the peasant” or “the village” in the national capital. At first sight, the variety-from fascist to communist, from Scandinavian farmers to Romanian nationalists and German Christian Democrats-is baffling. The present contribution argues that in essence they championed one out of three generic solutions to the “agrarian question”: a continuation of the status quo with piecemeal improvements, a return to an idealized early-modern society, or a revolutionary breakthrough overcoming the peasantry’s conservative stronghold. Much in these grand narratives and their confrontation with economic and societal realities depended on the representative’s understanding of those he claimed to represent. Either as “farmers” and hence rational economic actors or, alternatively, as “peasants” and hence authentic and/or backward. On closer scrutiny, many grand narratives contain significant strands of both understandings.