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Sinistrisme (French:[sinistʁism]) is aneologism invented by political scientistAlbert Thibaudet inLes idées politiques de la France (1932) to explain the evolution and recombination of party systems, particularly in France, without substantial changes occurring to party ideology.
Thibaudet saw that, over time, issues that previously had not been politicised would emerge, drawing public concern and stimulating demand for political action. A new political movement would form to champion the new concerns, sending repercussions throughout the existing political system. The old party of the left would be split, with some accepting the new issues as legitimate, agreeing to cooperate with the newcomers and adapting their ideology accordingly. Others on the existing left would double down on their existing ideas, refusing change: without changing their ideas, they would end up pushed de facto one space to the right, and end up as the new centre.
Meanwhile, the old party of the centre would be pushed to the centre-right, and so on. As for the very far right, over time the issues of social conservation that motivated them would gradually lose their appeal, and as old issues died off, space would be freed up for the old right to become the new far right.
The analysis of Thibaudet was the following- thesocially-conservative Liberal Monarchists had been the centre-left of the 1820s, but were pushed to become the new centre by the emergence of socially-conservativeModerate Republicans in the 1830s. These were pushed to the centre by the emergence of theRadicals in the 1870s; these were pushed to the centre by the emergence in the 1900s of theRadical-Socialists, who were pushed towards the centre by the growth of the socialistFrench Section of the Workers' International in the 1920s, who were, in turn, pushed towards the centre by the emergence in the 1950s of theFrench Communist Party.
This process, seen by Thibaudet as a historical necessity, thus explained, to Thibaudet, the tendency of social conservatives inFrance (at least in particular), to disavow the labeldroite (right), long associated inFrench history withmonarchism, in favour of theleft. The emergence of new rivals to their left meant that a political bloc suddenly found itself shifted one space to the right, without considering itself to be a partyof the right. Thus, political groups in France usually used labels that to an outsider would seem to belong one space to the left:
This phenomenon was still at play well into the 20th century. HistorianRené Rémond observed that after 1924 the term "right-wing" vanished from the glossary of mainstream politics in France, such that "at the1974 presidential election, only one candidate declared himself as belonging to the right:Jean-Marie Le Pen; in1981, there was none."[1]Conservative (which had been the name of anultra-royalist review in 1818–1820) was a synonym of "right-wing" often used under the Third Republic, in particular by theBloc national Chamber.Independents, used in the 1920s for deputies close to theAction française royalist movement, was later used by lessreactionary politicians.
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