Elite formation in late nineteenth century: France compared to Britain and Germany

Abstract

'In a famous and controversial book, Arno J. Mayer has defined European society at the end of 19th century as a persistent Ancien Regime. To defend his thesis, he invoked in particular the recruitment and formation of dominant elites mainly in Britain, Germany, the Dual Monarchy, Russia and more sketchily in Italy, Spain and even France. As the author has shown in two of his books (Les élites de la République and La crise des sociétés impériales), this thesis already controversial in the first quoted countries is not at all relevant for France. This does not mean that France was, as pretended its republican governing elites, a democratic and meritocratic nation, but that it is impossible to analyse elites in France with so broad and unprecise concepts as aristocracy, bourgeoisie and so on. The aim of this paper is to propose a new perspective with new social concepts and to compare them with results of the study of elites in the two other imperial societies, UK and Germany. We shall begin with France and then turn to these countries to show some similarities and differences forgotten by current historiography.' (author's abstract)|