The thesis examines the evolution of the modere tradition in French politics from 1929 to 1981. Les moderes represented those conservative liberals who, whilst initially supportive of the Third Republic, subsequently became increasingly agnostic in their attitude to the Republic, to the extent that by 1919 they were regarded as part of la droite classique. Characterised by their social conservatism and political liberalism, they were representatives of a political tradition that had been marginalized by a stronger republican tradition. Yet though the political structures of liberalism were weak, moderes had a political influence that belied their electoral strength and they increasingly developed a liberal critique in opposition to that of orthodox republican practice. The thesis argues that this often-neglected tradition was of greater significance within the wider plurality of political traditions than has hitherto been credited. Following recent developments in the methodology of modem political history, the process of ideological development is illustrated through an examination of the public rhetoric of a number of leading politicians within the tradition over a period of approximately fifty years. This time span allows for themes of continuity and rupture to be discerned and analysed. The liberal strategy, often at times of sharp ideological polarisation, was aimed at preserving the bourgeois Republic and its liberal elite by drawing upon the tenets of liberalism: including constitutional revision, antisocialism and later anticommunism, centrist and progressive policies, and economic liberalism. Yet many of these policies, which were initially deemed to be uncontroversial, caused internal division, not least because an appeal to one section of the modere electorate caused alienation and confusion in another. This was particularly noticeable in the 1970s during Giscard's attempt to expand the boundaries of political liberalism by adding a progressive, almost social democratic, dimension. The effectiveness of the liberal critique was hindered too by the elitism of the tradition which manifested itself in a certain pessimism, and fear of the consequences of mass democracy which made it look to the tradition's past for inspiration, and in an ambivalence, if not hostility, to the development of a modem, mass political party as the means by which the interests of liberalism might be advanced. Nevertheless, the thesis rejects the interpretation that the history of political liberalism from 1929 to 1981 is a repeated story of expectation and eclipse, with Giscard's defeat in 1981 as a final defeat for la droite liberale and the confirmation of the hegemony of fa droite gaulliste. By the mid-1980s, much of the liberal critique had been realised, demonstrating both the resilience of political liberalism and its contribution to the plurality of political traditions in contemporary France.

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Between 1934 and 1936 various organisations of the French left joined forces to create the Popular Front, an alliance borne of an antifascist imperative. After winning the May 1936 legislative elections, and in a climate of growing opposition from conservative and far right forces, the left-wing coalition came to power. By the end of 1938, the Popular Front had collapsed and the right was back in power. During this period (1934-1938), the right and far right repeatedly challenged the left-wing alliance‟s legitimacy and attacked its constituent political parties. This conflict between left and right intensified France‟s political and social tensions and polarised French politics and French society into supporters and opponents of the Popular Front. This thesis examines the role of the right within the context of the Popular Front and seeks to answer the following question: how did the right act in response to the Popular Front between 1934 and 1938? The thesis focuses on the Moselle, a border département returned to French sovereignty after forty-seven years under German domination (1871-1918). By 1934, the Moselle had developed a distinctive political character sympathetic to the right and hostile, or at best indifferent, to the left. By drawing parallels between Parisian and Mosellan events and using new archival material, the thesis demonstrates the originality of the Popular Front in the Moselle, and the responses of the local, and essentially Catholic and particularist, right. No scholarly work has yet examined the conflict between the right and the left within the context of the Popular Front in the Moselle. This thesis demonstrates how the département's distinctive historical, social, linguistic, cultural, political and religious context shaped the Popular Front and the right‟s responses to it.

The thesis investigates and analyses the hitherto neglected phenomenon of political reaction within the judiciary of south-eastern France during the period between the Thermidorian Reaction and the advent of the Consulate. The character, objectives and effects of the 'reaction judiciaire1 are studied through a series of different perspectives. The first task is to highlight the discrepancy between the concepts of the social and political effects of a revamped judicial system formulated during the Year III and the corrupt abuse of judicial power by reactionary provincial judges. Indeed, the study constantly seeks to explore the conceptual as well as the practical damage inflicted on the Directorial regime by the supposed trustees of the post-Terrorist republican settlement. Emphasis is placed upon the collaboration between the southern judges and the counter-revolutionary elements within the local community, especially in the discussion of the origins of the judicial reaction. The changes of technique and of objective which the judiciary experienced are explored in full. It is described from its beginnings as a weapon of retribution for the aggrieved local community against the former agents of the Terror to its role in the subversion of regional jacobinism to its support for the period of unchecked counter-revolution during the Year V and finally to its function as a 'rearguard' defender of arrested counter- revolutionaries during the period of the Second Directory. In addition, due consideration is given to the motivation of individual judges who operated the reaction. It is hoped that the thesis has provided a model for the study of the causes, techniques and aims of political reaction from within an independent state power. Furthermore, it is hoped that the work is seminal in its suggestion that judicial reaction and its many ramifications had both a direct and indirect bearing upon the fall of the Directory.

A la veille de l’élection présidentielle de 2007, la candidate du Parti socialiste, Ségolène Royal, revendique la transformation des modalités classiques d'une campagne électorale au profit de méthodes participatives. Sans rompre avec certaines techniques habituelles du marketing et de la communication politique, cette démarche se fonde sur des expériences délibératives menées au niveau local ou à l’étranger et sur les capacités interactives d’Internet mises au service de nouvelles pratiques démocratiques. Elle participe à la mutation en cours dans les partis politiques, confrontés à des enjeux de démocratie interne et à une interrogation persistante sur leur représentativité. Dans cette thèse, nous mettons en évidence les tensions, les interactions et les formes d’hybridation entre les logiques partisanes et les innovations participatives. Nous montrons comment la construction de dispositifs participatifs agit comme révélateur des rapports de force entre les principaux acteurs du jeu partisan. / In the months preceding the presidential elections of 2007, the Socialist party’s candidate, Ségolène Royal, laid claim to a transformation in traditional electoral campaign tactics in favor of participative methods. These included deliberative experiences both at the local level and abroad, as well as a use of the interactive possibilities of the internet to further new democratic practices, without of course abandoning the more routine techniques used in political marketing and communication. This dissertation explores the tension, interactions, and forms of hybridization that emerged between partisan politics and participative innovations. It highlights the ways the development of participative strategies acts to reveal the power relations between the main actors of the partisan political game.

Grand oublié de l’histoire du gaullisme, Louis Terrenoire en est pourtant l’un des représentants les plus attestés. Rien ne prédisposait ce Lyonnais d’origine, issu d’une famille modeste, d’abord engagé dans les actions du catholicisme social puis du syndicalisme chrétien à connaître une carrière politique inscrite en tout point dans le sillage du Général. Monté à Paris en 1932 pour entrer au journal L’aube lancé par Francisque Gay, Louis Terrenoire noue des premiers contacts avec les milieux politiques de la démocratie chrétienne. Il se distingue surtout par son engagement en tant que journaliste dans la lutte contre les fascismes. Mobilisé en 1939, il part au combat avec la volonté de défendre la patrie ainsi que ses valeurs républicaines et chrétiennes. Refusant l’armistice, il gagne très tôt les rangs de la Résistance, non en réponse à l’Appel du 18 juin qu’il n’entend pas mais pour prolonger un combat antifasciste entamé dans les années 1930. C’est au cours de ses années de résistance puis en déportation que Louis Terrenoire se découvre gaulliste et commence à se construire une identité politique indissociable du Général. En 1945-1946, il débute une carrière de parlementaire sous l’étiquette MRP. Après la rupture du « parti de la fidélité » avec le Général, Louis Terrenoire décide de le quitter en 1947 pour servir le général de Gaulle. Battu en 1951, il redevient député en 1958 et le reste jusqu’en 1973. Il participe à l’exercice du pouvoir au cours de la guerre d’Algérie en tant que ministre de l’Information, puis ministre délégué aux Relations avec le Parlement de février 1961 à avril 1962 en même temps que porte-parole d’un Général très ouvert au débat en conseil des ministres. Cet itinéraire politique est placé sous le signe d’une fidélité indéfectible à un homme – le général de Gaulle –, à ses idées, et à son œuvre, qui en fait un « baron » à part jusqu’à mort. / Greatly forgotten in the history of Gaullism, Louis Terrenoire is nevertheless one of the most attested representatives of it. Nothing predisposed this Lyonnais, from a modest family, first engaged in the actions of social Catholicism and then Christian trade unionism, to have a political career that was in every respect in the wake of the General. Louis Terrenoire went to Paris in 1932 to join the newspaper “L'aube” launched by Francisque Gay, and made his first contacts with the political circles of Christian Democracy. He stands out above all for his commitment as a journalist in the fight against fascism. Mobolized in 1939, he went into battle with the will to defend the country as well as its republican and christian values. Refusing the armistice, he very early won the ranks of the Resistance, not in response to the Appeal of June 18 that he did not hear but to prolong an antifascist struggle begun in the 1930s. It was during his years of resistance and then in deportation that Louis Terrenoire discovered himself to be a Gaullist and began to build a political identity inseparable from the General. In 1945-1946, he began a parliamentary career under the MRP label. After the break-up of the “loyalty party” with the General, Louis Terrenoire decided to leave him in 1947 to serve General de Gaulle. Beaten in 1951, he became a Member of Parliament again in 1958 and the rest until 1973. He took part in the exercice of power during the Algerian war as Minister of Information, then as Minister Delegate Relations with Parliament from February 1961 to April 1962 and at the same time as spokeman for a General who was very open to debate in the Council of Ministers.This political itinerary is based on an unfailing loyalty to a man- General de Gaulle-, to his ideas and to his work, which makes him a “ baron” apart until his death.

Que recouvre la politisation des enfants ? Entendue comme synonyme de la socialisation politique, elle désigne traditionnellement l'ensemble des mécanismes et des processus de formation et de transformation des systèmes individuels de représentations, d'opinions et d'attitudes politiques. Elle est aussi l'attribution aux enfants d'un degré d'intégration au sein du monde politique. Cette thèse étudie les différentes dimensions de la socialisation politique des enfants, en analysant à quelles conception du politique les enfants sont amenés à être exposés. Réfléchir en termes d'expositions suppose de se détacher d'une vision développementaliste qui associerait la socialisation politique à l'acquisition linéaire d'un contenu cumulatif. Dans cette optique, la socialisation politique se présente comme une juxtaposition de moments au cours desquels se présentent diverses conceptions du politique, de la recherche du consensus à la capacité à proposer des situations conflictuelles, en passant par des apprentissages centrés sur les procédures électorales et les institutions. Ainsi, les instances étudiées, deux conseils municipaux d'enfants, des écoles primaires et une association de lecture d'albums pour enfants offrent des épisodes de socialisation politique. Il s'avère que les contenus de chaque type de socialisation dépendent étroitement des représentations que l'on se fait des enfants quant à leur capacité à être des acteurs politiques, et des contraintes sociales de contextes d'étude qui associent à des degrés de facilité divers enfance et politique.Que recouvre la politisation des enfants ? Entendue comme synonyme de la socialisationpolitique, elle désigne traditionnellement l'ensemble des mécanismes et des processus de formation et de transformation des systèmes individuels de représentations, d'opinions et d'attitudes politiques. Elle est aussi l'attribution aux enfants d'un degré d'intégration au sein du monde politique. Cette thèse étudie les différentes dimensions de la socialisation politique des enfants, en analysant à quelles conception du politique les enfants sont amenés à être exposés. Réfléchir en termes d'expositions suppose de se détacher d'une vision développementaliste qui associerait la socialisation politique à l'acquisition linéaire d'un contenu cumulatif. Dans cette optique, la socialisation politique se présente comme une juxtaposition de moments au cours desquels se présentent diverses conceptions du politique, de la recherche du consensus à la capacité à proposer des situations conflictuelles, en passant par des apprentissages centrés sur les procédures électorales et les institutions. Ainsi, les instances étudiées, deux conseils municipaux d'enfants, des écoles primaires et une association de lecture d'albums pour enfants offrent des épisodes de socialisation politique. Il s'avère que les contenus de chaque type de socialisation dépendent étroitement des représentations que l'on se fait des enfants quant à leur capacité à être des acteurs politiques, et des contraintes sociales de contextes d'étude qui associent à des degrés de facilité divers enfance et politique. / What covers children politization? Understood as the synonym of political socialisation, it traditionally points to all the mechanisms and processes of construction and transformation of individual systems of representation, opinions and political behaviour. It is also understood as a certain level of entry of children into the political sphere.This work studied the different dimensions of children's political socialisation, determining which political concept children can be exposed to. Thinking in terms of exposition implies to detach oneself from the vision of associating political socialisation to the accumulation of norms and values that add to each other, implying that once an individual acquires a norm, he will never act against it. With this in mind, political socialisation is also an addition of moments during which various political concepts come by: from the search for an unanimous approval to the capacity of proposing conflictual situations, via trainings focusing on electoral procedures and institutions. Therefore, observed instances, 2 children municipal councils, primary schools and a reading club for children provide political socialisation moments. It turns out that concepts of each type of socialisationdepend strongly on how we consider the children capacity to be political actors, and on social restrictions in a studying environment related to the more or less easy association of childhood and politics.

Le dernier tiers du XIXème siècle ne constitue pas un moment pamphlétaire parmi d’autres. Non seulement il survient dans une période de démocratisation inédite qui confère au fait pamphlétaire un statut nouveau en lui permettant d’investir l’espace public officiel, mais il est aussi marqué par l’invention de la figure du pamphlétaire et l’émergence de personnalités reconnues comme telles et accédant parfois à une visibilité de premier plan. En dépit de leurs différences de cultures politiques, ces personnalités contribuent à organiser tout un jeu et tout un monde du pamphlet au croisement de la littérature, du journalisme et de la politique. A travers leur violent répertoire discursif, elles contestent l’ordre politique en cours d’édification et le procès de civilisation des mœurs politiques.Partant de l’hypothèse que ces pamphlétaires ont pu être des médiateurs importants du politique, notre recherche a pour objet d’interroger leur contribution aux processus de politisation. Elle entend examiner, dans une perspective socio-historique, dans quelle mesure ils ont pu représenter, dans cette période d’enracinement de la République et de stabilisation de la démocratie, un cheminement de la politique hors des sentiers battus, en favorisant une forme symbolique de participation non conventionnelle au jeu politique et en incarnant une forme transitoire de la rationalisation des passions politiques, entre l’émeute révolutionnaire et la patience démocratique. / The last third of the 19th century was not just any pamphleteering time amongst others. It occurred in a formerly unheard-of period of democratization, which conferred the pamphleteering reality a new status, thus enabling it to carve its way into the official public space. Besides, it was also marked by the invention of the pamphleteer's figure and the emergence of personalities acknowledged as such, some of whom boasting first rate visibility. For all their differing political cultures, these figures helped organize a whole set and world of the pamphlet, at the intersection of literature, journalism and politics. Through their violent discursive repertoire, these pamphleteers question the political order that was then being elaborated, as well as the then on-going process of civilization of political mores.Our research thus aims to examine pamphleteers' contribution to the process of politicization, on the assumption that these could be said to have acted as important mediators of politics. Our work is intended to grasp, within a socio-historical perspective, to what extent – during that period when the Republic was getting increasingly entrenched and democracy more stable – pamphleteers might be said to have represented an evolution of politics off the beaten path, thus favoring a symbolic form of unconventional participation in politics and ultimately embodying a transitional form of rationalization as regards political passions, hovering between revolutionary riots and democratic patience.