Candidates and candidatures in France (1848-1885)

di Raymond Huard
in Memoria e Ricerca n.s. 8 (2001), p. 129

The author wants to analyze better the selection process of candidates during an electoral campaign or, even better, during the phase which is immediately before the "campaigning" activities from 1848 to 1885 in France. Huard thinks that this selective process is the common denominator for all the political activities and that it integrates all the element of the political system together with the development of party's organization together with the influence of the social structures. During that period, Huard try to define what was a "candidate" to the polls: anybody who was saying to be a candidate in public meetings, in newspapers and in printed documents and/or who was doing an electoral campaign ? He then examines the democratization of this selecting procedures of the candidates themselves during the period and also the important influence, the electoral system and voting procedures, have had onto the selection process.