The Study Of French Conservatism In The Initial Stage Of The Third Republic

Conservatism which Dates back to 19th century in England has spread to European mainland quickly,and it became the topic that many people who were in the area of French politics and thought even if the Left-right politics discourse played the dominant role in France.Academic circles has some opinions about French Conservatism in the 19th century,but most of these opinions’ entry points are Royalist and Anti-enlightenment which have the highlight color of ideology.These entry points bring out a problem that the ignorance of the debate about the nation’s construction principle.This principle is not only the key preoccupations of every political thought,but also the place which the core interest exists for every political battle side,so Conservatism is not the exceptional case.For this reason,these thesis will take the debate about the nation’s construction principle as the entry point,put the French conservatism in the enormous historical background and find out the French Conservatism’s real core attention point.After demonstrate Statism and Centralization are the core point of French conservatism,this thesis will take the enormous social,political,religious events which such as Gallicanism,Boulanger Affair,Dreyfus Affair and so on as the background,talk about the attacks from Liberalism to Conservatism ideal.This attack is not only come from the republicans,but also from some Conservatives:these Conservatives ignored the pursuance of strong government and the embryo of Anti-Conservatism in Bourbon period in the political practice,were trapped in the utterance of People’s sovereignty and Parliament system.Liberalism’s challenge which come from two sides resulted in the decline of French conservatism in the period of the Third Republic.Therefore,this thesis’ key opinion has two point:Firstly,Liberalism is the biggest challenge for French conservatism;Popular Sovereignty,Parliamentarism,The Separation of Church and State,Decentralization and other issues are the battleground for Liberals to attack Conservatives and destroy the pursuit of Conservatism.Secondly,the Conservatism’s routine which combines with the factor of Liberalism is not suitable for France:Liberalism has contradiction with Conservatism on the metaphysical aspect,Conservatives has great problem on constructing the French conservatism routine that not only combines with the factor of Liberalism but also conform to Conservatives’ political interest.