Maurrassisme is a political doctrine originated byCharles Maurras (1868–1952), most closely associated with theAction française movement.Maurassisme advocates absoluteintegral nationalism,monarchism,corporatism,national syndicalism, and opposition todemocracy,liberalism,capitalism, andcommunism.[1]
Maurrassisme had as its ambition to be a counter-revolutionary doctrine, affirming the cohesion ofFrance and its greatness. It began from a slogan "Politics first", from a postulate,patriotism, which theFrench Revolution had erased in preference tonationalism, and a state: for Maurras, the French society of the late 19th century was undermined by decadence and corruption. According to him, these ills arose from the Revolution and caused their paroxysm in theDreyfus affair. Maurras'philosophical influences ranged fromPlato andAristotle toJoseph de Maistre, passing throughDante,Thomas Aquinas andAuguste Comte. His historical influences ranged fromSainte-Beuve toFustel de Coulanges passing throughHippolyte Taine andErnest Renan.
At fault, for Maurras, was the revolutionary and romanic spirit, borne by the liberal forces which he called the four confederated states (États confédérés), defined by him in 1949 inPour un jeune Français: theJews, theProtestants, thefreemasons and foreigners whom Maurras called "metics" (métèques).[2] These represented the "anti-France"; they could not in any way be admitted as part of the French nation.
Maurrassisme seems to have been born from a desire for order in the young Charles Maurras, attributed by some to his deafness.[3]
More precisely with regard to politics,Maurrasisme rested on the following policies to ensure national cohesion:
In the line of positivism, Maurras considered that societal organisation and institution ought to be the fruit of the selection imposed by the centuries, "organising empiricism" being considered more effective than idealized theories, because of its being adapted to each national situation. Monarchy played a part in these institutions, which were necessary notably to restrain Frankish-French rivalries.
The confidence in institutions forged by time led Maurras to distinguish the "Real Country" (pays réel), rooted in the realities of life — locality, work, trades, the parish and the family — from the "Legal Country" (pays légal) which he cast as artificially imposed on the "Real". These thoughts revisitedorganicist themes of Catholic political tradition.
Maurras' institutional instinct also owed much to his initialfederalism and his affiliation to theFélibrige movement ofMistral. He saw in monarchy the key to the vault ofdecentralisation. He considered that the people's direct attachment to the sovereign's authority and the moral cement of the Catholic Church were unifying forces which would be enough to ensure national unity in a largely decentralized political system. The republic, by contrast, could only achieve these aims by being constrained by the iron belt of Napoleonic centralized administration. His vision was authority on high, with freedom beneath.
It may be noted that it was through pragmatism and obsession with civil war that, in 1914 as in 1940, Maurras remained faithful to his principle of nationalist compromise, or theunion nationale in time of crisis, and supported bothGeorges Clemenceau andPhilippe Pétain in this.
In terms of political institutions Maurras had been alegitimist in his youth, then a federalist republican, but rediscovered royalism (although as a supporter of theOrléanists) in 1896 through a political argument: kings had created France, and France had been degenerating since 1789. As a partisan ofduc d'Orléans and his descendants (theDuke of Guise, thenthe Count of Paris), he dreamed of converting theAction française, newly created by nationalist republicans, to the royalist ideal, and of gathering to him the remainder of traditional French royalty, exemplified by theMarquis of la Tour du Pin orGeneral de Charette.
The synthesis between counter-revolutionary ideas and nationalism (but also positivism), triggered by the moral shock of thewar of 1870, which had turned some traditionalist forces towards the national idea and largely operated by theDreyfus affair from 1898 onwards, was to find itsapotheosis inMaurrassisme. While there remained some non-Maurrassiste political nationalist movements, such as the manyJacobin expressions of nationalism and theuniversalist nationalism along the lines ofPéguy, counter-revolutionary politics was completely converted toMaurrassisme by 1911 after the consolidation of traditional royalist groups.
Maurrassisisme was to give a second wind to counter-revolutionary ideas, which had been in decline since 1893 which saw Catholics drawn to the Republic. It was to promulgate these ideas beyond their traditionally counter-revolutionary regions, Catholic society and the aristocracy.
Personally anagnostic until the final years of his life (at which time he converted to Catholicism), Maurras appreciated the social and historical role of the Catholic religion in French society, particularly its role as a federating force. His utilitarian vision of the Catholic Church as an institution serving the interest of national cohesion fostered a convergence between devout Catholics and those more distanced from the Church.
The Maurrassist synthesis would develop into a school of thought in France, and indeed extend beyond French borders. Within France,Maurrassisme became a major influence in intellectual andstudent circles (in law and medical departments, etc.) in the 1910s and 1920s, reaching a peak in 1926 before the pope's condemnation. By way of example, the Maurrassist current had its attraction to the most diverse personalities, "fromBernanos toJacques Lacan, fromT.S. Eliot toGeorges Dumézil, fromJacques Maritain toJacques Laurent, fromThierry Maulnier toGustave Thibon, up tode Gaulle".[4]
Maurrassisme was a particular source of inspiration for theRévolution nationale of theVichy regime of 1940–1941, theregime ofAntonio Salazar inPortugal and ofFrancisco Franco inSpain.
