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Louis Blanc | |
|---|---|
 Blanc in the 1870s | |
| Born | (1811-10-29)29 October 1811 |
| Died | 6 December 1882(1882-12-06) (aged 71) |
| Resting place | Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 19th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Socialism |
| Main interests | Politics,history,economy |
| Notable ideas | Right to work,national workshops |
| Member of theNational Assembly forSeine 5 | |
| In office 13 February 1871 – 6 December 1882 | |
| Minister of State | |
| Provisional government | |
| In office 24 February 1848 – 9 May 1848 | |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | The Mountain (1849–1852) Republican Union (1871–1882) |
Louis Jean Joseph Charles Blanc (/blɑːn/blahn;French:[blɑ̃]; 29 October 1811 – 6 December 1882) was a Frenchsocialist politician, journalist and historian. He called for the creation of cooperatives in order toguarantee employment for the urban poor. Although Blanc's ideas of the workers' cooperatives were never realized, his political and social ideas greatly contributed to the development ofsocialism in France. He wanted the government to encourage cooperatives and replace capitalist enterprises. These cooperatives were to be associations of people who produced together and divided the profit accordingly.
Following theRevolution of 1848, Blanc became a member ofthe provisional government and began advocating for cooperatives which would be initially aided by the government but ultimately controlled by the workers themselves. Blanc's advocacy failed; caught between radical worker tendencies and theNational Guard, he was forced into exile. Blanc returned to France in 1870, shortly before the conclusion of theFranco-Prussian War, and served as a member of theNational Assembly forSeine. He did not support theParis Commune but later he successfully proposed amnesty to theCommunards.
Blanc was born inMadrid. His father held the post ofInspector General of Finance underJoseph Bonaparte. His younger brother wasCharles Blanc, who later became an influential art critic.[1] Failing to receive aid fromPozzo di Borgo, his mother's uncle, Louis Blanc studied law in Paris, living in poverty, and became a contributor to various journals. In theRevue du progres, which he founded, he published in 1839 his study onL'Organisation du travail. The principles laid down in this famous essay form the key to Louis Blanc's whole political career. He attributes all the evils that afflict society to the pressure of competition, whereby the weaker are driven to the wall. He demanded the equalization of wages, and the merging of personal interests in the common good—"De chacun selon ses facultés, à chacun selon ses besoins,"[2] which is often translated as "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." This was to be affected by the establishment of "social workshops," a sort of combined co-operative society andtrade union, where the workmen in each trade were to unite their efforts for their common benefit. In 1841 he published hisHistoire de dix ans 1830-1840, an attack upon theJuly Monarchy. It ran through four editions in four years.
In 1847, Blanc published the two first volumes of hisHistoire de la Revolution Française. Its publication was interrupted by theRevolution of 1848, when he became a member ofthe provisional government. It was on his motion that, on 25 February, the government undertook "to guarantee the existence of the workmen by work"; and though his demand for the establishment of a ministry of labour was refused as beyond the competence of a provisional government, he was appointed to preside over the government labour commission (Commission du Gouvernement pour les travailleurs) established at theLuxembourg Palace to inquire into and report on the labour question.
The revolution of 1848 was the real chance for Louis Blanc's ideas to be implemented. His theory of using the established government to enact change was different from those of other socialist theorists of his time. Blanc believed that workers could control their own livelihoods but knew that unless they were given help to get started the cooperative workshops would never work. To assist this process along Blanc lobbied for national funding of these workshops until the workers could assume control. To fund this ambitious project, Blanc saw a ready revenue source in the rail system. Under government control the railway system would provide the bulk of the funding needed for this and other projects Blanc saw in the future.
When theworkshop program was ratified in theNational Assembly, Blanc's chief rivalÉmile Thomas [fr] was put in control of the project. The National Assembly was not ready for this type of social program and treated the workshops as a method of buying time until the assembly could gather enough support to stabilize themselves against another worker rebellion. Thomas's deliberate failure in organizing the workshops into a success only seemed to anger the public more. The people had been promised a job and a working environment in which the workers were in charge, from these government-funded programs. What they had received was hand outs and government funded work parties to dig ditches and hard manual labor for meager wages or paid to remain idle. When the workshops were closed the workers rebelled again but were put down by force by theNational Guard. The National Assembly was also able to blame Blanc for the failure of the workshops. His ideas were questioned, and he lost much of the respect which had given him influence with the public.
Between thesans-culottes, who tried to force him to place himself at their head, and the National Guards, who mistreated him, he was nearly killed. Rescued with difficulty, he escaped with a false passport to Belgium, and then to London. He was condemned to deportation in absentia by a special tribunal at Bourges. He protested against the trial and sentence in a series of articles in theNouveau Monde, a review published in Paris under his direction. These he afterwards collected and published asPages de l'histoire de la révolution de 1848 (Brussels, 1850).
During his stay in Britain, he made use of the unique collection of materials for the revolutionary period preserved at theBritish Museum to complete hisHistoire de la Revolution Française (12 vols., 1847–1862). In 1858 he published a reply toLord Normanby'sA Year of Revolution in Paris (1858), which he developed later into hisHistoire de la révolution de 1848 (2 vols., 1870–1880). He was also active in themasonic organisation, the Conseil Suprême de l'Ordre Maçonnique de Memphis. His membership in the London-basedLa Grand Loge des Philadelphes is unconfirmed.
As far back as 1839, Louis Blanc had vehemently opposed the idea of a Napoleonic restoration, predicting that it would be "despotism without glory," "the Empire without the Emperor." He therefore remained in exile until the fall of theSecond Empire in September 1870, after which he returned to Paris and served as a private in the National Guard. On 8 February 1871 he waselected a member of the National Assembly, in which he maintained that the Republic was "the necessary form of national sovereignty," and voted for the continuation of the war; yet, though a leftist, he did not sympathize with theParis Commune and exerted his influence in vain on the side of moderation. In 1878 he advocated the abolition of thepresidency and theSenate. In January 1879 he introduced into the chamber a proposal for the amnesty of theCommunards, which was carried. This was his last important act. His declining years were darkened by ill-health and by the death, in 1876, of his wife Christina Groh, whom he had married in 1865. He died atCannes, and on 12 December received a state funeral inPère Lachaise Cemetery.
Blanc possessed a picturesque and vivid style, and considerable power of research; but the fervour with which he expressed his convictions, while placing him in the first rank of orators, tended to turn his historical writings into political pamphlets. His political and social ideas have had a great influence on the development ofsocialism in France. HisDiscours politiques (1847–1881) was published in 1882. His most important works, besides those already mentioned, areLettres sur l'Angleterre (1866–1867),Dix années de l'Histoire de l'Angleterre (1879–1881), andQuestions d'aujourd'hui et de demain (1873–1884).
TheParis Metro StationLouis Blanc is named after him.
Blanc is sometimes cited as the first person to use the word capitalism in something like its modern form. While he did not mean the economic system described byKarl Marx inDas Kapital, Blanc sowed the seeds of that usage, coining the word to mean the holding of capital away from others:
What I call 'capitalism' that is to say the appropriation of capital by some to the exclusion of others.[3]
— Organisation du Travail (1851)
Blanc was unusual in advocating for socialism without revolution first.[4]
Blanc invented theright to work with hisLe Droit au Travail.[5]
Blanc resisted what he perceived as the atheism implicit in Hegel, claiming that it corresponded to anarchism in politics and was not an adequate basis for democracy.[6]Friedrich Engels claimed that "Parisian reformers of the Louis Blanc trend" could only imagine atheists as monsters.[7]
Instead, Blanc claimed that religion was foundational for revolution to take place, in keeping with theromantic tradition.[8] He regardedliberalism andProtestantism as part of the same historical and ideological movement[9] and accordingly considered theFrench Revolution of 1789 as a political outgrowth of theindividualistic rejection of authority inherent in Protestantism andheretical movements.[10][11] Blanc thought the best of the revolution was the Jacobin dictatorship in the communitarian spirit of Catholicism.[12] Blanc himself sought to combine Catholicism and Protestantism in order to synthesize the values of authority, community, and individualism that he both affirmed as necessary for community.[10] He was unusual in combining Catholicism and socialism.[13]
Along withEtienne Cabet, Blanc advocated for what he understood as true Christianity while simultaneously critiquing the religion of Catholic clergy.[8] He was hopeful about the religious innovation taking place in early revolutionary France.[13] His belief in God was shaped by romanticism and was similar toRousseau,Philippe Buchez andFrançois-Vincent Raspail.[14]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Blanc, Louis".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This work in turn cites, in addition to Blanc's own works:
French Provisional Government of 1848 (24 February 1848 to 9 May 1848) | ||
|---|---|---|
| President of the Council | ||
| Interior | ||
| Foreign Affairs | ||
| Finance |
| |
| Justice | ||
| Public Works | ||
| Agriculture and Commerce | ||
| Education and Religious Affairs | ||
| Navy and Colonies | François Arago, Sub-secretaryVictor Schœlcher | |
| War | ||
| Other members | ||
