French Farmers, Political Tendencies

From the Napoleon Time to the establishment of the Third Republic, The French regime alternated among imperialism, the monarchy system and the republican system back and forth in turbulent political situation. Many elements contribute to this histor- ical phenomenon and among them, the influence of French farmer's political orientat- on is one of the important one. This article attempts to analyze French farmers' politi- cal orientation and to trace its historical origin during this period so as to uncover the inner link between French farmers'political orientation and the modem politics const- ruction in France.During the historical stage from the Napoleon time to the establishment of the T- hird Republic, French farmers retained more traditional characteristics under old syst- ems. Ignoring the capitalism politics, they followed the old custom, and resisted nati- onal policies, even in some cases they did participate in some national political activit- ies, they showed no clear knowledge about democracy politics and their modem con- sciousness about it was very weak.French farmers' weak morden political consciousness is the result of two kind of factors, namely, the internal and the external factors. The internal factors are the farmers' own ingrained conservative nature and the split among the farmers themsel- ves. While the external factors come from the fact that most of the government's policy did not suit the farmer actual situation and the fact that other social organizati- ons have frustrated the farmers' enthusiasm towards the modem democratic politics, etc.During this historical period from the Napoleon time to the establishment of the Third Republic, farmer's non-modem political orientation, caused difficulty in the economical innovation in France and failed to provide sound material base for the political modernization, and on the other hand, due to its lack of support from far- mers, the French bourgeoisie republican could not reign stably. Therefore, the French regime alternated turbulently among the imperialism, the monarchy and the republican system.In brief, the modemization of French farmers' political consciousness is unav- oidable on the road to establishing and consolidating stable bourgeoisie republican system. It is vital to the construction of modem capitalism democracy.