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The Turning-Point in French Politics: 1947

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

J. B. Duroselle
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Extract

Anyone who lived in France in the years 1945–1946 has a confused impression of both disarray and nostalgia. In the spring of 1946 Father Danielou, S.J., addressing a small group of British teachers, who had come to France at the invitation of the “Catholic Center of French Intellectuals,” described the time aptly: between the past horrors of war and occupation and the ever-present possibility in the immediate future of other horrors still more atrocious, this period seemed to him an oasis. For a great many Frenchmen this time still evokes the disorder due to the occupation, rapid liberation, and also recalls for them the beginning of a convalescence with all the relief and well-being this implies; it is the period of agitation and illusion.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , July 1951 , pp. 302 - 328
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1951

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References

1 We have used mainly the following: 1) The files of the Documentation Center of the National Foundation for Political Sciences. 2) The daily papers. 3. The big party periodicals: Cahiers du Communisme, Revue Socialiste; Politique (under MRP influence). 4) L'Annie politique (revue chronologique des principaux faits politique!, économiques et sociaux de la France), edited by Siegfried, André, Ed. Bonnefous, J. B. Duroselle: one yearly volume. 5) Personal interviews.Google Scholar

2 Trans. Note: Members of the Mouvement Republicain Populaire (MRP), a Christian Social Party (Catholic) which began in France after the Liberation. Its leaders had been working closely with de Gaulle in London or had been among the most prominent Resistance chiefs.

3 Journal Officiel, November 30, 1946.Google Scholar

4 Trans. Note: The Radical party is now Left-Center, rather Conservative as a whole, but traditionally opposed to the Catholic Church.

5 Trans. Note: Right-Wing.

6 Rassemblement du Peuple Français (RPF).

7 After MrWeill-Raynal's, Etienne expression: Le problème de la majorité gourernementale. Revue Socialiste, December, 1947, pp. 537–39.Google Scholar

8 According to the Journal Officiel, October 27: 9,263, 416 “yes”; 8,143,981 “no”; 8,467,537 abstaining.

9 Trans. Note: A French ‘department’ is an administrative territorial division.

10 See the two statistical studies by Husson, Raoul: Elections el referendums 1946 et 1947, and in particular Vol. II, p. 253.Google Scholar

11 See Weill-Raynal, , op. cit., p. 548Google Scholar. See also L'Humaruté, June 26, 1947Google Scholar, and Le Monde, June 27, 1947.Google Scholar

12 We have known many such cases among the students of the “Ecole Nonnale Superieure.” In 1946 the Party had an estimated million registered members; at the time of the Gennevilliers Congress, April, 1950, it is estimated that their number was 700,000.

13 It is impossible to determine the exact number, for the statistics of the Headquarters, obviously exaggerated, are not to be trusted. We are able to make this affirmation bcause of many conversations wa had with directors, staff and officers and workers, conversations which could check each other. It is generally estimated that the number of C.G.T. members attained 5½ million in 1946, only 4 million in 1950. (Cf. Figaro, May 2, 1950)Google Scholar

14 Dropping from 40,339 to 32,703, counting the “sympathizers.” Statistics of the Ministry of the Interior. Cf. Année Politique, 1947, p. 364.Google Scholar

15 Anniée Politique, 1947, p. 363.Google Scholar

16 An area including several “communes,” grouped together for poll purposes.

17 For instance, at the time of the voting of the Constitution in October, 1946.

18 Anniée Politique, 1944–1945, p. 59.Google Scholar

19 Anniée Politique, 1947, p. 94.Google Scholar

20 Année Politique, 1947, p. 94.Google Scholar

21 June 29, 1947.

22 Examine this report in the edition of L'Humanité, June 26, and also in Le Monde the correction offered by Thorez to an interpretation of his speech.

23 Cf. Journal Officiel.

24 Recently, I chanced to have a discussion with some Communist workers and I was struck by the hatred they feel towards Moch who is at present minister for the National Defence. They consider him, moreover, as “the Americans' man,” “the man of the big trusts.”

25 December, 1947, p. 561.

26 Trans. Note: de Gaulle's word for Communists.

27 Année Politique, 1944–1945, pp. 130–131.Google Scholar

28 See Lapie, P. O., “La France devant le problème allemand,” Revue Socialiste, June, 1947, pp. 23–29.Google Scholar

29 It is to be noted that the Moscow treaty, December, 1944, and the French-English treaty of Dunkirk, March 4, 1947, are both defensive treaties directed against Germany.

30 Interview granted January 14 to the correspondent of the New York Times. Also see Année Politique, 1947, p. 18.Google Scholar

31 Perhaps 16,000 in 1950.