People and Politics in France 1848-1870

Why do people take an interest in politics? What do they hope to gain from voting? Why support one political party rather than another? To what extent is political behavior rooted in class or community? Although these are all questions which might be asked of emerging Third World countries the focus in this study is on nineteenth-century Europe and in particular the aftermath of the 1848 Revolution in France. It covers responses to the counter-revolutionary policies of the imperial regime of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte following his coup d''tat and the subsequent emergence of democracy in that country.