are peasants necessarily conservatives?

8/3/2019 Are Peasants Necessarily Conservatives?

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ARE PEASANTS NECESSARILYCONSERVATIVES ?Peasants are not necessarily conservatives; however the majority of peasants are conservativedue to a number of factors. Firstly however we must define conservatism; Gilbert Chestertonfamously said All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone youleave them as they are. Therefore conservatism as an idea largely rejects change and alsorejects progress due to this. The core values which guide this political ideology can bederived from traditions and the influences of family traditions in this case especially. Thesetraditions are passed from generation to generation of peasants with little or no socio-economic changes. The third pillar of the conservative political attitude is an acceptance of anatural inequality of society in which some will be more affluent and educated than others.Many of these ideals have been held by peasants since the feudal times of Europe. This is the

core reason for the nature of what to what many modern and liberals would be a backwardlooking political attitude. To evaluate this we must look at peasants in different Europeancountries and for this I will be evaluating the political nature of France, Belgium and theNetherlands. The final element of this question that must be investigated is whether thepeasant classes can belong to any political ideology due to levels of involvement and thusmaking them unable to be conservative as they would merely be peasants. However the threemain pillars of conservatism must first be tested to question whether they match the criteriafor being conservative.

Tradition as already mentioned plays a large role in the promotion of conservatism inpeasants. Lewis- Beck states peasants are in but not of modern society. 1 This is true

about many aspects of peasant life for example religious attendance, national integration anduse of modern technologies especially a refusal to modernize with the industrial revolutionand collectivization of farming such as in Russia. It is a combination of all these factors thatleads to notion that peasants are conservative.

A lack of education is a factor in the reasoning behind a conservative movement. Forexample 69% of western peasants in the 1970s didnt have more than a primary education. 2 This means a higher dependence on other influences for moral and political ideals; forexample the influence of family who will teach children their own traditions and politicalideals, leading to a more direct transfer of ideals from generation to generation. Thiscombined with factors such as a low participation in national affairs due to the isolation of therural areas especially in the 19 th and early 20 th century meant that this notion of conservatismwas adopted. Thus education can change the ideology of a group in society due to the effectsit has on political participation as it gives access, through literacy, to a broader range of information such as newspapers and pamphlets. An issue then can be seen that withuneducated people they rely much more on a cultural rather than a rational approach to theirpolitical ideals. In the case of peasants this are conservative values derived from a want forsocial order and there resistance to change. Many of these values may be installed byinstitutions such as the church.

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Michael S. Lewis- Beck, Explaining Peasants Conservatism: The Western European Press (University of Iowa, Cambridge University Press, 1977) p. 4562 Ibid., p. 453


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Religion is a factor in the conservatism of peasants as it guides their moral compasses. Theattendance of church in rural areas is traditionally much higher than that of the rest of thenation, it also acts as maintenance of social order and gives some moral guidance in place of education. For example in the Netherlands 78% of peasants attend church at least once aweek. 3 This compared to 52% of the working class population shows how tradition of going

to church as strong family morals dictate will have an effect on the political ideals of thesepeasants. This is a strong cause of conservatism in the peasantry.

The way peasants resist change is a clear way they can be associated as conservatives. Lewis-Beck states The peasant as a conscious, conservative political actor seems motivated aboveall by a desire to maintain order. 4 This is due to cultural beliefs and a fear of the effects of revolution. Shown again highest rates in Belgium who when asked on questions of socialorder by Ingleheart in the 1970s 71% voted in favor of the maintenance of social order. 5 Inthis way then we can see that in some European countries due to a fear of political instabilitythat there is a high proportion of political conservatism.

In France it is commented on by Henry Ehrmann that the conservatism is maintained by theFrench government as they are highly protective over the agriculture. 6 This is due toprotectionism from the state for French peasants as from the French Revolution the livelihoodof peasants was ensured, thus a conservative nature of the peasantry in France is due to theprotective measures, such as tariffs on crops, which ensure little or no change in the socio-economic climate and thus preserving the conservative nation as a whole. In this way then wemust look beyond simple factors such as lack education and religious influence but in somecountries the effect of national structures which can affect the political culture of thepeasantry.

Some peasants however due to the nature of their crops were more involved in the nationaleconomy. As Tony Judt states Vignerons had to purchase their bread, clothes, meat andoften tools; as a result they shared in the economic interests of the urban community .7 due tothese wine growing peasants who focused primarily on the selling of their crops and less onthe subsistence farming they have a change in political ideals. Participation in a nationalmarket lead them having to be educated to maximize the profits from their crops. Thiseducation and the economic situations the experienced lead them to be like minded as thoseof the working class and adopt more socialist political ideals. In this case then peasants whogrow crops which have to be traded are less likely to be conservative due to a more educatedand cultured lifestyle.

This knowledge of political ideas in these peasant communities who now feel they have to bemore nationally aware for their own prospects. With this awareness came political opinionsdeveloping and with universal suffrage for many by the First World War meant that they nowvoted for groups that may be beneficial to their needs. However classically peasants havestruggled to associate with radical socialism as the notion of collective farming takes awaytheir heritage; this led to some complications in the compatibility of this class and ideology.

3 Michael S. Lewis-Beck, Explaining Peasants Conservatism , p. 4564 Ibid., p. 4585 Ibid., p. 4586 Henry Ehrmann, Politics in France (United States of America, Little, Brown & Company (Canada) Limited,

1983)7 Tony Judt, Socialism in Provence 1871 -1914 (New York, Alden Press, 1979) Politics and the FrenchPeasantry p. 263


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This may have also had the effect of pushing these new politically engaged peasants towardsgroups of the center such as Gaullist party in France and Social Christians in Belgium. 8 Inthis way it may be argued that how participation by peasants may actually re-enforce theirconservative ideals.

Some factors however influence the way political ideas are passed on for example if thechildren move away from home and experience a wider political culture and broadening theirhorizons and if they move to urban areas their social class may change as they becomemembers of the working class due to occupation in factories. For example 3.2 million farmersleft the country side between 1950 and 1970 moving to urban areas, these migrants are likelyto experience different socio-economic conditions and will no longer hold peasantconservative mentalities. 9

Some argue however that the division of the peasantry in to subsets can affect their politicalnature. The idea put forward by Judt as this that the subclasses who are landless areconservative as their aim is to gain land and to them public land is only useful if it can beprivatized to them; those peasants with small land holdings however are more typicallysocialist in their tendencies as they believe in supporting the community and have less carefor more land as they already have land of their own so support communal land. 10 Judt thusimplies that not all peasants are necessarily conservative as the subdivision divides this classin terms of political ideals. The nature of French farms also with a size of between 2 to 5acres also had an effect as compared to Britain who at the same time in 1900 had an averagefarm size of 65 acres. The nature in the difference in these sizes also has a difference as formany French peasants it was not a business with profits as had been the result of theformation of larger farms in Great Britain at this time but had the effect of making it more of a lifestyle and more part of a community between these smaller farms. From this then wemust note that not all peasants are conservative as some with land have more socialist habits.

Some may argue one factor of conservatism which peasants clearly do not obey is the naturalinequality of the human race socially. Many peasants look for greater advancement inthemselves so far as they aspire to become wealthier. Also those who are involved in broaderpolitical culture may have more of a liberal view on this as they believe in a greater equalitybetween men. For this reason also then it may be argued that whilst they follow many of thetendencies of conservatism many more educated and even those uneducated may be forwardthinking and thus not conservative in all parts. However this is largely untrue as we see due tothe small changes of the socio-economic conditions from generation to generation that clearlymany of the peasants whilst forward looking actually do little to change the social standings.

Also the high church attendance undermines this idea further as participation in the church isa key area for an acceptance for inequality due to the hierarchical system of the CatholicChurch which was the church of many Western European peasants.

The final factor that must be considered is overall political participation and whether it iscorrect to even consider a peasant political. Ingleheart desc ribes peasantry as pre -materialistas they do not fit characteristics of either materialists or post -materialists. In this way thenInglehart associated them with a time before issues of politics, before a left right mentality, a

8 Michael S. Lewis- Beck, Explaining Peasants Conservatism: The Western European Press (University of Iowa, Cambridge University Press, 1977) p.4499

Ibid., p.46210 Tony Judt, Socialism in Provence 1871 -1914 (New York, Alden Press, 1979) Politics and the FrenchPeasantry


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time of feudal political ideals. For this reason then they must be argued that they follow nopolitical ideals and thus cannot be dubbed conservative as to be associated to a political idealsone must recognize its own involvement in it. If peasants are not aware that they are actingconservatively, this does not make them necessarily conservative; as the actions may onlylead to a causal association to the notion of conservatism.

In conclusion we see that a number of factors can dictate the why peasants are conservative ina number of ways. The lack of education combined with religious participation leads to a setof morals being past to conservatives with can be considered conservative. This leads them toa largely negative attitude to change so far as political stance they are deemed conservative.The governments may also play a role in this as they allow for very little change fromgeneration to generation and thus ensuring the nature of a conservative peasantry in smallholdings in France, this may have the effect of creating an isolated group in society as theirideals become less and less compatible with the mainstream of society. Some factors howeverdictate that some may not be politically conservative as their crops make them more likeworking class members of society due to shared economic situation and gives them a moresocialist inclination. This on the whole may lead to some friction between these subcultureswithin the peasantry. Finally the question of whether peasants can be deemed to be any formof political class as they fail to participate or engage in political culture as we know it thusnot conforming to patterns by which we judge political ideals, as Inglehart said the are pre -materialists. In summary though to a greater extent many peasants are conserva tive but insome respects those who become involved in the wider markets loose this narrowconservative political stance.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Henry Ehrmann, Politics in France (United States of America, Little, Brown & Company(Canada) Limited, 1983)Shelia Fitzpatrick, Stalins Peasants (New York, Oxford University Press, 1994)Barbra Goodwin, Using Political Ideas 5 th Edition (Chichester, John Wiley & Sons Ltd)Joseph Henric and Richard McElreat, Are Peasants Risk -Averse Decision Makers? Current

Anthropology vol. 29, 01 pp.172-81 Tony Judt, Socialism in Provence 1871 -1914 (New York, Alden Press, 1979) Politics andthe French Peasantry Michael Lewis-Beck S., Explaining Peasants Conservatism: The Western European Press (University of Iowa, Cambridge University Press, 1977)Annie Moulin, Peasantry and Society in France since 1789 (New York, University of Cambridge, 1991)Eugen Webber, Peasants into Frenchmen (London, Chatto & Windus Ltd, 1977)

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