Léon Bourgeois

Léon Victor Auguste Bourgeois (French: [leɔ̃ buʁʒwa]; 21 May 1851 – 29 September 1925) was a French statesman. His ideas influenced the Radical Party regarding a wide range of issues. He promoted progressive taxation such as progressive income taxes and social insurance schemes,[1] along with economic equality, expanded educational opportunities, and cooperative solidarism. In foreign policy, he called for a strong League of Nations, and the maintenance of peace through compulsory arbitration, controlled disarmament, economic sanctions, and perhaps an international military force.

Léon Bourgeois
Prime Minister of France
In office
1 November 1895 – 29 April 1896
PresidentFélix Faure
Preceded byAlexandre Ribot
Succeeded byJules Méline
President of the Senate
In office
14 January 1920 – 22 February 1923
Preceded byAntonin Dubost
Succeeded byGaston Doumergue
President of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
10 June 1902 – 12 January 1904
Preceded byPaul Deschanel
Succeeded byHenri Brisson
Personal details
Born(1851-05-21)21 May 1851
Paris
Died29 September 1925(1925-09-29) (aged 74)
Épernay
Political partyNone
Alma materUniversité de Paris

Biography

Bourgeois was born in Paris in to a modest Republican family of a watchmaker of Burgundian descent,[2] and was trained in law, graduating from his university in 1874. After holding a subordinate office (1876) in the department of public works, he became successively prefect of the Tarn (1882) and the Haute-Garonne (1885), and then returned to Paris to enter the Ministry of the Interior. He became Prefect of Police in November 1887 at the critical moment of Jules Grévy's resignation from the presidency. In the following year, he entered the Chamber, being elected deputy for the Marne, in opposition to George Boulanger, and joined the Radical Left. He was undersecretary for Home Affairs in Charles Floquet's ministry of 1888 and resigned with it in 1889, being then returned to the chamber for Reims. In Pierre Tirard's ministry, which succeeded, he was Minister of the Interior, and subsequently, on 18 March 1890, Minister of Public Instruction in the cabinet of Charles Louis de Saulces de Freycinet, a post for which he had qualified himself by the attention he had given to educational matters. In this capacity, he was responsible for some important reforms in secondary education in 1890.

He retained his office in Émile Loubet's cabinet in 1892, and was Minister of Justice under Alexandre Ribot at the end of that year, when the Panama scandals were making the office one of peculiar difficulty. He energetically pressed the Panama prosecution, so much so that he was accused of having put wrongful pressure on the wife of one of the defendants in order to procure evidence. To meet the charge, he resigned in March 1893 but again took office and retired only with the rest of the Freycinet ministry.

In November 1895, he formed his own cabinet, distinctively radical, which fell as the result of a constitutional crisis arising from the persistent refusal of the Senate to vote supply. He was an eminent Freemason[3][4] and eight of his cabinet members were Freemasons.[5]

Official portrait of Léon Bourgeois

The Bourgeois ministry seemed to think that popular opinion would enable them to override what they regarded as an unconstitutional action on the part of the upper house. However, the public was indifferent, and the Senate triumphed. The blow damaged Bourgeois's career as an homme de gouvernement. As Minister of Public Instruction in the Brisson cabinet of 1898, he organized courses for adults in primary education. After the short ministry, he represented his country with dignity and effect at the Hague Peace Convention, and in 1903 was nominated a member of the permanent court of arbitration.

He held somewhat aloof from the political struggles of the Waldeck-Rousseau and Combes ministries, travelling considerably in foreign countries. In 1902 and 1903, he was elected president of the Chamber. In 1905, he replaced the duc d'Audiffret-Pasquier as senator for the department of Marne, and in May 1906, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Sarrien cabinet. He was responsible for the direction of French diplomacy in the conference at Algeciras. He was delegate to both Hague Conferences held in 1899 and 1907. Bourgeois also became delegate to Paris Peace Conference and strongly supported the Japanese Racial Equality Proposal as "an indisputable principle of justice".[6]

Following World War I, he became President of the Council of the League of Nations and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in 1920.

A social republican, Bourgeois sought a middle ground between socialism and capitalism which he termed "solidarism". He believed that the rich had a social debt to the poor which they should pay by the income tax, thus providing the state with the necessary revenue to finance social measures for those living in poverty. However, the Senate opposed his proposal, and opposition grew until his resignation as prime minister.

Bourgeois's Ministry, 1 November 1895 – 29 April 1896

Changes

  • 28 March 1896 – Bourgeois succeeds Berthelot as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Ferdinand Sarrien succeeds Bourgeois as Minister of the Interior.

Support to the French National Museum of Natural History

Bourgeois is one of the founders of the Friends of the Natural History Museum Paris society. He was the very first president in office from 1907 to 1922.[7]

References
  1. J. E. S. Hayward, "The Official Philosophy of the French Third Republic: Leon Bourgeois and Solidarism," International Review of Social History, (1961) 6#1 pp 19-48
  2. "The Nobel Peace Prize 1920". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  3. Edward A. Tiryakian (2009). For Durkheim: Essays in Historical and Cultural Sociology. Ashgate. p. 93. ISBN 9780754671558.
  4. He was initiated at "La Sincerité", lodge of Grand Orient de France (Paul Guillaume, « La Franc-maçonnerie à Reims (1740–2000) », 2001, p. 333)
  5. Jean-Marie Mayeur; Madeleine Rebirioux (1988). The Third Republic from Its Origins to the Great War, 1871-1914. Cambridge U.P. p. 164. ISBN 9780521358576.
  6. Conférence de paix de Paris, 1919–1920, Recueil des actes de la Conférence, "Secret," Partie 4, pp. 175–176. as cited in Paul Gordon Lauren (1988), Power And Prejudice: The Politics And Diplomacy of Racial Discrimination Westview Press ISBN 0-8133-0678-7 p.92
  7. Yves Laissus, "Cent ans d'histoire", 1907-2007 - Les Amis du Muséum, centennial special, September 2007, supplement to the quarterly publication Les Amis du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, n° 230, June 2007, ISSN 1161-9104 (in French).
  • France since 1870: Culture, Politics and Society by Charles Sowerine.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bourgeois, Léon Victor Auguste". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

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