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U609 u'' ■^S ''6) 482 - 0100 ■ Pnone ^S ''^6) 288 - ^989 - t-'an SOME MERITS AND DEFECTS OF THE FRENCH SYSTEM Pbof. Wiluam Bennett Munro Harvard University COLONIAL Reprinted from the Pro««lir,, of Th. American Poli tic»l Science Aawcmtion, 1907 I SOME MER,TS ..r. n^PECTSOP '.H.PR.NCH COLONIAL Prof. William Bennett Munro Harvard Univertity ^-=-X^ n;?=-t- arSalS^-^t a few small islands in the Gulf o^ll*'';'* •"emained in America only in Africa only Senega ReulnandMlT""' '"** '''' ^*"''^"»^ tically abandoned); and VnT^^ .^^^ u't^T'" ^'^' ''*"" P^'^' trading posts on he mainlat oJ L t^"^ "^^ ^ ^^^ ^"'all to >-ield her place among the Lit "I"'- ''"'' '^'^ ^^^" '^'•^"J The course of events dunn^Thrn?""'"^ P°^'^" °^ the world, on more than one oZ'^ZV^l^.^^^T^^ T^'"' 'T'^^^' ^- erative power of the French neonL T^ ^"^ marvelous recup- has tlu.s pov.or been sZlt Zni^ the i" "^i '""^ ^^""^'"^ ^'''^P-* esls beyond the sea... Throuch^Kp „ .*^^^^'«P'"^"t of new inter- important territories in lea a„d r^'"'"" '' """"' '"' "*'''' over Tunis, Madagascar and exJeni "^'""P^'"" "^ protectorates French have regain^ for t htm . T^"""" '" ^"do-China, th^ tu ":^r- - ^:;-^- --. t^l^^for. a de^ , domains of French admiration 1!^^:^"" '' ^'"^ '" '^' ^'^''''' tive colonization will flnHn thlL . ""' ''"^'"* ofcompara- Properlv be looked u "on ven aT !Te ^^^^^^^ after 1815 the old idea.s of coLtl ^^' "^ '^' ^''^ ^^'''^me; for of centralized controlwle ,otr !b '°7T'"* ""^ '''' "''^ '"^thods old colonial svstem and the new ..t"'^-"' '" '^"^^ ^^^^^^^^^ ^^e One import'ant featte wWh T'S V'"^'" '^°""^^*'"S link. French colonies be r the R^^oluTion '"it administration of the secure absolute uniform tv in the "1 "'' '\'''<^^'<^^^ endeavor to -Mittie pro..on for':^r^:r;:::-l;;;;r ^^:^^^ 48 AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 40 enormous disparity in point of environment and in the kind of prob- lems l.kely to anse, the French dominion, in Canada, for inst^ce hke those employed m India, and were subjected to almost the same supervisory methods. The home government, as De TocquevilleZ remarked essayed to take the place of Providence by applZgiTs mfalhble formulas of administration to ail the Bourbon depenZcJ^ This passion for uniformity and symmetry the French have, indeed TZ^ 7T T''' ««'^«°f ''-temporaryhomeadminStratSn; notaWy into the sphere of local government; for one finds more than 36 m communes ,1th populations ranging from fifty to half a rn^hon, all provided with the exactly same administrative machiaerj cdonT'T^ m precisely the same way. In the contempora^ CO lomal sj^tem of France, however, this inelasticity is Li^ ^ow !. ■ K^ ^""'^ '^' ^'P^"^^'^- *^^*°"«« °f the republic Z ' Ld dSo'l"?. ^"i''V'' ^'^^«°'>' '' "^^^P^''*' dependencies," and a though they differ from one another far less widely than did the colomes of the old regime, no serious attempt is made to conform he administration of all to any single plan or theory. On the cT- trary the present system exhibits entire flexibility both in the meth- otht :ir;;t:^t' *'^" ''-'- '-'''' -' ^ ^'^ -«-^-^- AJgena, the most important of the French depends icies, is treated as an mtegral part of France. Like the other local units of the repuS hi ts s^r?"" '"^'''^'^°° "^ '^' '"^'^'^^^ °^ *^« '°t«"0'' it ori; , . K "P:^«°**ti°° i*^ the French parUament; and its orgamzation, both of departmental and of local government con orms generally to that of France itself. The prot'ectorZincLJ- mg Turns and the larger part of Madagascar, are under the super- vision of the minister of foreign affairs, but they retain their u^ loca orgamzation. All the remaining French territoriesltre c^ onies proper-are in charge of the minister of colonies. There is stronJv'^S^'h' decentralization of control which contrasts very even Ijth h '''''''''' centralization of the old dominion, and br2l^ f^ ^'fy ^^"^'"^trical policy which characterizes ^ther branches of French administration at the present day. This division IXnch"',"-'?' T'^' '"" -i-'^t-g--; ^or it hi^elpTtS r..!r . ^u -P"'''^ '° '^' nineteenth and twentieth centuries an elasticity which it utterly lacked in the eighteenth, and it h^ I S2385 50 PUOrEKDINOS OF THE likewise served to mitigate that pernicious faith in administrative shibboleths whit h has too often been the curse of French politics both at home and abroad. One feature which serves to distinguish the present colonial system of France from that of Great Britain, Germany or the United States, is the practice of giving to dependent territories a certain representa- tion in the official councils of the mother state. Algeria, being re- garded as part of France, has of course its quota of representatives- three senators, representing the three departments of Algiers, Oran, and Constantine, and six deputies, selected two from each depart- ment. The election procedure is to all intents and purposes the same as in France, the franrhise being confined to Frenchmen and naturalized Europeans. The protectorates, including Tunis, have no representation at all in the French parliament although the degree of control exercised over them is fully as great as in several other territorial dependencies. Of the score or mor<- of "colonies proper," only sejren have the right to send representatives'— Martinique, Guadaloupe, French Guiaca, Senegal, French India, and Cochin-China; to others not less impor- tant—as Tonkin, Cambodia, Dahomey, French Congo— no rights of representation are given. For this discrimination there are historical reasons only. The colonies represented are, H will be noted, the older dependencies, which acquired their right during a period when the idea of a gradual assimilation of the colonies to the mother coun- try was regarded as the true goal of colonial administration. This idea, indeed, dominated French statesmanship until less than two decades ago, when it gave place tc the notion that neither assimilation nor yet mere exploitation, but a mean between the two, should be attempted. Of late, therefore, the French authorities have not looked with favor upon any movement to carry the system of colonial rep- resentation to its logical conclusion by according the privilege to the newer colonies. On the contrary, on more than one occasion, it has been seriously proposed ♦o withdraw the right of representation from those colonies which now possess it. 'The privilege of sending representatives was first accorded to tf e colonies during the Revolution; but it was abolished by the constitution of tae year viii and was not restored till 1848. In 1852 it was again supp' jssed by the Second Empire, but was reestablished in 1870 by the government of the national defense, which in 1875 made it a constitutional fixture. Since then decrees regulating its exercise have been issued from time to time. AMERICAN POLiriCAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 61 Am. ng thp seven colonies now holding the privilege, no rational basis of representation is established, senators and deputies being allotted without any due regard 'it differences in population, in area, -in wealth, or in contributions to the national exchequer. The dis- t .-ibution, so far as it goes, rests upon a purely arbiti ry basis. Mar- tinique, Guadaloiipe, and Reunion have each one senator and two deputies; French Indiahaaone senator and one deputy; French Guiana, Senegal and Cochin-China have each a deputy but no senators. Thus the three small islands of Martinique, Guadaloupe and Reunion have a larger representation than that of all the other colonies put together, a share which is, indeed, equal to that of the whole dependency of Algeria. That Algeria, with its five milh'ons of population, should be entitled to nc greater representation than the three islands, with only five hundred thousand, is a proposition so difficult to maintain, that the coJonJes have in some quarters come to be regarded as the "rotten boroughs" of the French political system. Any attempt at a redis- tribution would, however, serve only to open the whole question a.s to the merits and defects of the system of colonial representation, a discussion which none of the leading French poUtical parties seem to desire. The method* by which the various dependencies select their rep- resentatives afford further illustrations of the elasticity of the s>'stem. In Algeria, as has been said, the natives do not vote at all. In Mar- tinique, Guadaloupe, and Reunion they hold the franchise on equal terms with Frenchmen, and the same is substantially true of Senegal. In French India and in French Guiana they have a right to vote, but not on equal terms with the French inhabitants: yet even with the handicap they hold a dominant hand in the elections. In Cochin- China they are almost entirely shut out, and the French residents ire in control. The arrangements in each case are made by special decrees issued from time to tiJie .since 1870, each seeking to meet the circum- stances of the particular colony in question. E.\cept for this variation in the francliibe from colony to colony, the electoral methods pursued in the dependencies are much like .hose at home. Voting lists, compiled under the same sort of regulations, are used both in the election of deputies and in the local elections; tl voting takes pUce (except in Senegal) by written ballot; the colonial representatives are paid out of the national purse, and they enjoy at Paris all the privileges and legal immunities of the regular French members of parUament. In the chambers they possess the 52 PKOCEED1N08 OK THE right to discus8 and to vote upon every project, whether it is likely to affect the interests of the colonies or not, a right which they have nut hesitated to use. Although the system of colonial representation has not been with- out its very distinct advantages, particularly in affording the colo- nies a recognized official channel through which their grievances might be effectively set forth, it has, without doubt, fallen far short of expectations. In a senate of three hundred and a chamber of six hundred members, the colonial representatives form so insignificant an element that their voting strength is scarcely sufficient to make their support worth the interest of any of the leading political fac- tions. During the last decade they have swung mainly into the ranks of the ocialist party, and have on the whole found place more gen- erally among the opponents than among the supporters of the admin- istration. On somewhat rare occasions men i>t marked ability have been sent to Paris from the colonies; but in the main the colonial senators and deputies have not risen to the general level. In this respect one marks a notable contrast between the delegation from the colonies and the little group sent regularly from Alger , the latter deputation setting a distinctly high standard, and in the con- siderable number of members which it has furnished to recent French ministries fully justifying its existence. That the colonies proper, on the contrary, have not on the whole risen to their opportunities in the matter of representation is shown by the caliber of the men whom they sometimes choose, men like the Indian deputy from Pondicherry, for instance, whose corrupt manipulations became a public scandal, or like the negro deputy from Martinique who, after his election, refused to proceed to Paris because he had been warned by spirits not to venture upon the seas. Not infrequently the colonies select as their representatives men who have already taken an active part in French politics at home; but in the main this practice is not followed. In either case, the objection is often made that the colonial deputies interest theniselves too prominently in the purely domestic politics of the republic, and .00 frequently lose sight of the special colonial interests which they are supposed to guard. One is often reminded, in this connection, of the important occasion upon which a French ministry was ousted from office upon an interpellation relating to a purely local matter, the sponsor for which was the deputy for Cochin-China. Although this colonial deputy was perfectly within his parliamentary rights in AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 53 eml)orras8ing the government at a very critical muiuent upon a qi;»»s- tion relating to a cen .al mairie for Paris, many . renchmen naturally ventured to raise the question whether his energies might not have been more appropriately employed. From the very nature of things, a colonial representative enjoys in parliamentary circles a certain amount of prestige and special influence; and these advantages, it is claimed, he too often uses improperly. The methods by which a" ators and deputies are selected in the colonics have also been r^ jr harshly criticised. There are those, indeed, who urge vigorou."' and with a good deal of <• nctantial evidence to support them, that 'he colonial represer io not in many cases faithfully reflect the public opinion • colcnies from which they are accredited. In support of these ai r^'ations, it is poi t «h1 out that the natives who have voting rights d o not exercise these rigi/ 5 in any reasonable degree. The proportion of polled to regis- tered votes is, no doubt, discouragingly .small in almost all the colonies at every election; and this is not b< ause the French element in the colonies sieks in any sinister way to throw obstacles in the way of native voting. On the contrary, it appears that rival French leaders very eagerly exploit the native vote, and are frequently charged with brinfiing natives to the polls through corruption, undue influence, or even open intimidation. Were thenative voters left alon<>, it is believed that even the present meager •^bowing (vould be considerably reduced. In view of the small percentage of native votes polled, and especially in view of the notorio' activity of French officials in connection with the colonial ele. -ns, it is indeed questionable whether the colonial dep 'itip.« sumetimes represent much more than the official class m .he colonies. The influence of this large official ciass, p°-^icularly a\\ the native leaders, is obviously very great, and no * j .t is usualV exerted to the full in an endeavor to secure the election of reprc-sentatives satisfactory to itself. It has been shown in a parliamentary investigation in Senegal that these functionaries make their arrangements with the native chiefs, who conduct their followers in bands to the polls, where they indicate their choice according to instructions The chit-fs. it seems, are the only factors to be reckoned with, each village headman having a vot- ing strength of one, two, or three hundreil ballots, as the case may be. The whole proceeding thus becomes a farce electorcUe, the representa- tive chosen being usually some one whom the native voters have never seen and of \ liom m^st of them have never heard. Cases are on 54 PROCEEDINGS OP THE record in which deputies have beenrhosen to represent colonies which they have never even visited, their electoral campaigns being man- aged by officials on the ground. The deputy, owing his election to the officials, is thereby committed to their support; and the exertion of influence proceeds in a circle, sometimes with exceedingly vicious efTects. In all the represented colonies except Cochin-China the native element has a decisive numerical preponderance; and even where it has not equal weight with the French it is nevertheless stxong enough to control the elections. This the French inhabitants regard as a substantial grievance; for thp natives contribute only insignificant sums to the exchequer, and, with a few unimportant exceptions, fur- nish no recruits to the military establishment; whereas the colonial Frenchmen bear the brunt of financial and miUtary burdens, and yet are allotted only a minor share in the choice of those who assume to represent the wishes of the colony in the councils of the nation. Hence the system which was designed to harmonize the interests of the two elements in the colonies seems to have exerted an influence in exactly "he opposite direction. As a theory, tho extension of the franchise to tropical natives had much that served to commend it to the French people, particularly in view of the prevailing demo- cratic temper of 1848 and 1870; but in its practical workings it has been productive of discontent, anomalies and even abuses. Paul Leroy-Beaulieu does not hesitate to condemn the electoral svstem of the colonies as an "absurd institution;" and there seems to be a growing conviction that there is ample room for its reform. One aspect of the question which has elicited discussion in recent years relates to the bearing which the system of colonial representa- tion ha^ upon the question of political development within the colo- mes themselves. In the colonies of France the march to colonial autonomy, or toward an\nhing approaching autonomy, has been extremely slow; in none of them is there yet the faintest recognition of this principle. Elective assemblies have, it is true, long since been established in several of the dependencies; in some the members of these local bodies are elected on a basis of manhood suffrage pure and simple, in others by complicated plans which provide, or attempt to provide, for the representation of interests rather than for the reprc.> encies must in the nature of things have its place among the obstacles in the way of colonial autonomy. The French government of the present day, therefore, aware that a half century of experience has not served to stamp with marked success its ventures along the path of political assimilation, fines itself in the somewhat awkward predicament of not being ready to carry the principle of colonial representation to its logical conclusion. On the other hand, it cannot ea.