Les origines de la Troisième République en France (1860-1885)

Abstract

The origins of the Third Republic, 1860-1885. The present article attempts to explain the durability of the Third Republic, the only post-revolutionary regime to have lasted more than two decades. Working from sociological theories of democratie transition, the author emphasizes the importance of the prior emergence of a middle class imbued with a liberal outlook extending beyond the political sphere. From the early 1860s, this middle class began constructing spaces of freedom in the various public spheres ; these were to serve as bridgeheads for the pro-cess of transition. Paris lawyers, Free Masons, the Paris universities, the Paris Chamber of Commerce, the Jewish ad Protestant consistories, artistic milieus, all battled for self-government, thus accustoming the different sectors of the middle class to the free exercise of suffrage and democracy to combat the authoritarianism of the Bonapartist State. These struggles were amplified and relayed by a growing number of public lectures held on various pretexts, by newly founded newspapers, publishing houses and journals, by the diffusion of writings from overseas colonies of republican resisters. Associations like the Ligue de l'enseignement set up networks of libraries to bring these writings to a large public. Lastly, the supporters of the Republic invented their own symbolism, embodied in public ceremonies which enabled them to manifest their secular, democratie ideal (civil burials, political funerals, commemoration of historic dates). They also used popular means to diffuse a new ideal of social life, of private life and of taste, which broke with the previous principles of authority and hierarchy. Nevertheless, the initial limitations of the republican policy (concerning social matters or gender relations), like the compromise agreed with the former notables after coming to power, also account for the conservative evolution and the ultimate failure of the regime.