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- Title
Morality and Monarchy: Corruption and the Fall of the Regime of Louis‐Philippe in 1848.
- Authors
Fortescue, William
- Abstract
Monarchical regimes throughout Europe were confronted by similar challenges in 1848–49, yet, uniquely, the July Monarchy in France did not survive. Apart from possessing an exceptional revolutionary tradition, France under the July Monarchy differed from other European states by the degree to which the moral credibility of the regime had been undermined by its association with corruption. This article considers how political caricature and literary works sapped the moral foundations of the July Monarchy, how a wide range of government policies under Louis‐Philippe were condemned on moral grounds, how parliament and the entire economic, social and political system came to be seen as corrupt, and how a series of scandals had an enormous public impact and fatally eroded respect for the Orleanist elite. Hence, when the February Days occurred, the July Monarchy collapsed like a house of cards, and no serious attempt was ever made to effect its restoration.
- Subjects
FRANCE; FRENCH monarchy; REGIME change; CORRUPTION; POLITICAL systems
- Publication
French History, 2002, Vol 16, Issue 1, p83
- ISSN
0269-1191
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/fh/16.1.83