La place de la Révolution Française dans la politisation des paysans

Abstract

The author examines the controversial question of the part played by the French Revolution in the awakening of French peasants to modern politics; Eugen Weber and others have questioned the role of the Revolution and set this awakening much later under the Third Republic. In Melvin Edelstein's view, on the contrary, the peasants' political participation was far from négligeable and he bases his view on an analysis of the degree of peasant participation in local and national elections mainly between 1789 and 1793. The research done up to now on nearly twenty departments indicate that these percentages were often higher than was previously asserted, and especially that these results refute two generally accepted ideas: the backwardness of the South and the West considered to be "under-developed" compared to a more politically aware north-eastern France and the idea that the superiority of the degree of urban participation compared to that of rural areas: more generally, it was the opposite which took place. The First Empire plebescite votes confirm that a real apprenticeship concerning national questions went on during the French Revolution.