Calendrier du 05 janvier 2022
Economic History Seminar
Du 05/01/2022 de 12:00 à 13:30
On line
LACROIX Jean (Université Paris-Saclay)
Nationalism losing its Religion: Evidence from the Papal condemnation of the Action Française
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How do anti-democratic organizations react to elites' opposition? This paper assesses the influence of Pope Pius XI on the development of the Action Française in interwar France to tackle this question. In 1926, the Pope condemned the Action Française (AF). As a consequence, Catholics had to choose between a potential involvement in the Action Française and accessing Catholic sacraments. We use various difference-in-differences and IV estimates to assess how the Action Française reacted to the condemnation. First, in the immediate aftermath of the condemnation, the Action Française re-organized : the number of its branches increased. Second, the Papal condemnation shaped the geography of this reaction: relatively less branches were created in highly-religious areas whereas relatively more branches were created in places were the episcopate sanctioned members of the Action Française the most. Third, additional results on voting, political violence and workers' movements suggest that the Action Française radicalized to cope with its loss of influence among its historical supporters.