The Founding of the French Third Republic

Abstract

How France became a consolidated democracy after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 has received little attention from students of comparative democratization. Contrary to earlier structural theories, the French case shows that in periods of high social uncertainty, political elites with clear ideological visions of the future have a strategic advantage over their more “pragmatic” opponents. Clear and consistent ideologies can solve the collective action dilemma facing initial party activists by artificially elongating the time horizons of those who embrace them. Successful party ideologies have the character of self-fulfilling prophecies: By portraying the future polity as one serving the interests of those loyal to specific ideological principles, they help to bring political organizations centered on these principles into being. In the early Third Republic, ideologically consistent republicans and legitimists built effective networks of party activists, whereas ideologically inconsistent Orléanists and Bonapartists failed to do so, allowing the victorious republicans to design new state institutions—with pro-democratic consequences.

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