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" From Andre Tardieu to Valery Giscard d'Estaing : "
Davies, David Gareth Griffiths
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1100173
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TLets606555
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| Main Entry
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Davies, David Gareth Griffiths
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| Title & Author
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From Andre Tardieu to Valery Giscard d'Estaing :\ Davies, David Gareth Griffiths
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| College
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University of Manchester
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| Date
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2009
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| student score
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2009
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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The thesis examines the evolution of the modere tradition in French politics from1929 to 1981. Les moderes represented those conservative liberals who, whilstinitially supportive of the Third Republic, subsequently became increasingly agnosticin their attitude to the Republic, to the extent that by 1919 they were regarded as partof la droite classique. Characterised by their social conservatism and politicalliberalism, they were representatives of a political tradition that had beenmarginalized by a stronger republican tradition. Yet though the political structures ofliberalism were weak, moderes had a political influence that belied their electoralstrength and they increasingly developed a liberal critique in opposition to that oforthodox republican practice. The thesis argues that this often-neglected tradition wasof greater significance within the wider plurality of political traditions than hashitherto been credited.Following recent developments in the methodology of modem political history, theprocess of ideological development is illustrated through an examination of the publicrhetoric of a number of leading politicians within the tradition over a period ofapproximately fifty years. This time span allows for themes of continuity and ruptureto be discerned and analysed. The liberal strategy, often at times of sharp ideologicalpolarisation, was aimed at preserving the bourgeois Republic and its liberal elite bydrawing upon the tenets of liberalism: including constitutional revision, antisocialismand later anticommunism, centrist and progressive policies, and economic liberalism.Yet many of these policies, which were initially deemed to be uncontroversial, causedinternal division, not least because an appeal to one section of the modere electoratecaused alienation and confusion in another. This was particularly noticeable in the1970s during Giscard's attempt to expand the boundaries of political liberalism byadding a progressive, almost social democratic, dimension. The effectiveness of theliberal critique was hindered too by the elitism of the tradition which manifested itselfin a certain pessimism, and fear of the consequences of mass democracy which madeit look to the tradition's past for inspiration, and in an ambivalence, if not hostility, tothe development of a modem, mass political party as the means by which the interestsof liberalism might be advanced. Nevertheless, the thesis rejects the interpretation thatthe history of political liberalism from 1929 to 1981 is a repeated story of expectationand eclipse, with Giscard's defeat in 1981 as a final defeat for la droite liberale andthe confirmation of the hegemony of fa droite gaulliste. By the mid-1980s, much ofthe liberal critique had been realised, demonstrating both the resilience of politicalliberalism and its contribution to the plurality of political traditions in contemporaryFrance.
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University of Manchester
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