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POLITICAL CHANGE |
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FRANCE HOME PAGE POLITICAL CHANGE |
Remarkably, this widely quoted statement by Francois Furet may not quite be true, despite the fact that it was written almost 100 years after the French Revolution began. The event so shattered French political traditions that its effects still reverberate, even though they may have been muted by the time that the late 20th century rolled around. Political change in France since the Revolution has often been sudden and sharp, resulting in confusion and chaos, and sometimes violence. In modern France, the swings may be contained, but they still occur, and French leaders, as well as the actions of the electorate, retain the capacity to surprise not only outsiders, but sometimes themselves as well. Until the late 18th century political change occurred gradually and incrementally, but since the Revolution, the French political system has developed in stages, or eras marked by events that suddenly end them and begin something new. We shall investigate these eras of political development as evidence of this overall pattern of political change:
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