Electoral antipluralism and electoral pluralism in France, from the mid-nineteenth century to 1914

It is well known that, from the middle of the nineteenth century, France experienced a particularly difficult apprenticeship in universal suffrage.¹ The number and the frequency of non-contested elections is perhaps the most striking evidence of this. Between 1848 and the end of the century, elections were often won by candidates who faced no opponent, or at least no opponent who posed any danger. Over and above the high number of these single-candidate constituencies (French-style ‘rotten boroughs’, so to speak), the electoral map of France was also distinguished by the proliferation of ‘fiefs’. A candidate could stand successfully, time and again, facing only rivals who were more or less beaten in advance. The competition was often purely formal, and only slight differences distinguish the case of the rotten borough from those of the electoral fief.