Hostname: page-component-cc8bf7c57-n7qbj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-10T08:38:51.382Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Presidential Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Extract

Under the French Third Republic it was customary for candidates for the presidency to make no statement concerning their aspirations to high office. It would have destroyed all chances had they revealed a cherished conviction on any vital public question. Now and then exceptions occurred. So firmly established, however, did the custom become, that a politician's silence on problems of the commonwealth spoke eloquently of his intentions. If he attended the opening of schools and hospitals, the conferring of official honors, and like occasions and indulged in harmless specimens of rhetoric, his aspirations were undeniable. He stood above the noise and confusion of everyday political strife, thus showing his outstanding qualifications for an office that, theoretically at least, existed in a non-partisan world of its own.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1948

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)