'Reactionary' (or 'reactionist') is a political epithet, generally used as a
pejorative, originally applied in the context of the
French Revolution to
counter-revolutionaries who wished to restore the real or imagined conditions of the
monarchical ''
Ancien Régime''. Through the 19th century, it was used to refer to those who wished to preserve
feudalism or
aristocratic privilege against
industrialism,
republicanism,
[1] liberalism, and in some cases
socialism.
Later on in the early
20th century, the term also came to describe those favouring a stronger role of the
Catholic Church in society, as well as - pejoratively - the diverse groups and individuals criticizing certain aspects of
ideologies like
liberalism,
democratic socialism, secularism, and other leftist ideologies.
Etymology and history
''Reactionary'' comes from the
French word ''réactionnaire'', coined in the early 19th century. It was the first of the two words coined (the other being
conservative, from the
French word ''conservateur'') for the opposition to the
French Revolution. "In parliamentary usage, the monarchists were commonly referred to as the
Right, although they were often called Reactionaries."
[''The Governments of Europe'', Frederic Austin OGG, Rev. Ed., The MacMillan Co., l922, p. 485.] This is the first time the word was used to mean "A movement towards the reversal of an existing tendency or state" or a "return to a previous condition of affairs."
The earliest English-language use cited in the ''
OED'' is by
John Stuart Mill in 1840: "The philosophers of the reactionary school—of the school to which
Coleridge belongs."
[2]
In the 19th century this term was used against individuals and groups that idealized either
feudalism or the pre-modern era that preceded the
Industrial Revolution and the
French Revolution when economies were largely
agrarian, the
landed aristocracy dominated society, a
king was on the throne and the church was the moral centre of society. Thus, those labeled reactionary once favoured the
aristocracy over the
middle class and the
working class, even though they later favoured the conservative
bourgeoisie---they were against democracy and parliamentarism.
Meanings of ''reactionary'' in particular contexts
In
Marxist terminology, reactionary is generally used with a
pejorative meaning to refer to people whose ideas might appear pro-
working class but in essence contain elements of
feudalism,
capitalism,
nationalism,
fascism, or other
ruling class characteristics.
The term reaction appeared in Europe during the
French Revolution, when conservative, and especially
Catholic, forces organized to oppose the changes brought by the revolution and to fight to preserve the authority of the
Church and
Crown. Reaction was especially opposed to the most radical tendencies such as
Jacobinism,
In the context of
19th century European politics, the reactionary class were the Roman Catholic hierarchy (namely the
clergy), the
aristocracy,
royal families and
royalists and all those who supported traditional
monarchies and the involvement of the Catholic church in government. In France, those who supported traditional rule under the direct heirs of the
Bourbon dynasty were called the
legitimist reaction. At the time of the
Third Republic, the monarchists were the reactionary faction which was later changed to a much milder term of Conservative.
The term was also used in
Protestant countries to describe those who support tradition against modernity.
In the
20th century the term was often used to describe opponents of
Socialist or
Communist revolution such as the supporters of the
White Army who opposed the
Bolsheviks after the
October Revolution. It was also applied to supporters of highly
authoritarian,
anti-Communist or
fascist regimes such as
Vichy France,
Francisco Franco's
Spain or
Antonio Salazar's
Portugal. Franco was a reactionary in the usual sense of the word; he sought to defend the traditional order of Spanish society (including the major role of the Catholic Church) and the power of the Spanish state against democratic leftist forces, and he wanted to revert Spain's political situation to an authoritarian regime after a period of
democracy. The Vietnamese government frequently call organisations or ideas they perceive as hostile as "reactionary" (''phan đông''), and this word even features in legal codes.
European reaction
The reaction arose in Europe in response to the French Revolution, which, to some extent, embodied the ideas of
the Enlightenment. Upon the
regicide of the French King
Louis XVI, the revolutionists signalled a "worldwide uprising against all monarchists, an uprising to be led by France's armies."
[3] Furthermore, the revolution set precedents in undermining (or even completely eliminating) the power of the aristocracy through the confiscation of feudal estates. Under the liberal monarchists of
1789, some of the vast estates of the clergy and aristocracy were confiscated; in
1793, the process continued with the estates of condemned nobles; and in
1797, the egalitarians of the Conspiracy of
François-Noël Babeuf experimented with the abolition of land ownership in some parts of France. The revolutionary slogan of "''Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité''" was not an empty embellishment but the essence of Enlightenment philosophy; that of
secularization,
egalitarianism,
classlessness and
democracy, which motivated the masses to action on the barricades.
The French Revolution was a political and a social revolution. It was political in the sense that it changed the form of government from an
absolute monarchy into a
democratic republic. It was social in the sense that it sought to reform society, in areas such as religion, education and law.
Thermidorian Reaction
The
Thermidorian Reaction was a movement within the revolution, against the excesses of the
Jacobins. On July 27,
1794 (9 Thermidor year II in the
French Republican Calendar),
Maximilien Robespierre's
Reign of Terror was brought to an end.
The overthrow of Robespierre signalled the reassertion of the French
National Convention over the
Committee of Public Safety. The Jacobins were repressed, the prisons were emptied and the Committee was shorn of its powers. After the execution of some 104 Robespierre supporters, the Thermidorian Reaction stopped the use of the guillotine against alleged counterrevolutionaries, set a middle course between the monarchists and the radicals and ushered in a time of relative exuberance and its accompanying corruption. The Thermidorian Reaction was thus not ''reactionary'' in the more common sense of the term.
The Restored French Monarchy
With the
Congress of Vienna, the monarchs of
Russia,
Prussia, and
Austria formed the ''
Holy Alliance'', a form of collective security against
revolution and
Bonapartism inspired by Tsar
Alexander I of Russia. This instance of reaction was surpassed by a movement that developed in France when, after the second fall of
Napoleon, the ''Restauration,'' or re-instatement of the
Bourbon dynasty, ensued. This time it was to be a
constitutional monarchy, with an
elected lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies. The Franchise was restricted to men over the age of ''forty'', which indicated that for the first fifteen years of their lives they had lived under the ''
ancien régime''. Nevertheless, King
Louis XVIII was worried that he would still suffer an intractable parliament. He was delighted with the
ultra-royalists, or Ultras, whom the election returned, declaring that he had found a ''
chambre introuvable'', literally, a "house of government for which the like cannot be found". But later he realized that they were too ultra for a royal.
It was the Declaration of Saint-Ouen which had prepared the way for the Restauration. Upon landing in France, the future Louis XVIII stated most notably that the lands of the aristocrats who fled, and which the Republic had sold at auction, were not to be confiscated nor was restitution to be given. Further, that the
Napoleonic Code of Law was to remain in force, that the awards and social function of the
Legion of Honor given to those loyal to Napoleon was not to be abolished, and that Napoleon's changes to the educational system, most notably the University of Paris, would remain. It was the desire to restore all these issues to their pre-revolutionary conditions that most dramatically defined a reactionary. And many of the Ultras held these notions, thus becoming far more reactionary than the King's own policies.
Before the French Revolution, which radically and bloodily overthrew most aspects of French society's organization, the only way that constitutional change could be instituted was by referring it to old legal documents that could be interpreted as agreeing with the proposal. Everything new had to be expressed as a righteous revival of something old that had lapsed and had been forgotten. This was also the means used for diminished aristocrats to get themselves a bigger piece of the pie. In the
eighteenth century, those gentry whose fortunes had so diminished that they lived at the level of peasants went skulking for every ancient feudal law that would give them a little something. The "ban," for example, meant that all their peasants had to grind their grain in the lord's mill. So they came to the
French States-General of 1789 fully prepared to press for the expansion of such practices in all provinces, to the legal limit. They were horrified when the French Revolution permitted common citizens to go hunting, one of the few advantages that they had always maintained everywhere.
Thus with the restoration of the Bourbons, the Chambre Introuvable set about reverting every law to return things not merely to the age of the
absolute monarchy, but before that to the age in which the aristocracy really was a socially powerful class. It is this which clearly distinguishes a "reactionary" from a "conservative." The conservative would have accepted many improvements brought about by the revolution, and simply refused a program of wholesale ''reversion''. Hence one should be wary of the use of the word "reactionary" in later days as a political slur, since there is nothing to compare with the Chambre Introuvable in other countries. For example, Russia certainly didn't have any such aristocrats after
1989.
Later French kings similarly had trouble with their parliaments. The revolutions of
1830 and
1848 indicated that the people wanted a democratic republic.
The clerical philosophers
In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the French state was in constant turmoil between the forces on
restoration of the right and revolutionaries on the left. Herein arose the clerical philosophers
Joseph de Maistre,
Louis de Bonald, and
François-René de Chateaubriand, whose solution was to restore the former
absolute monarchy and reinstall the
Roman Catholic Church as a state church. This pattern of thought was to become recurrent in French reactionaries, who generally long for a pre-Revolutionary Golden Age and wish to repudiate the two centuries of changes after the Revolution (see ''
Action Française'').
De Maistre became famous as the philosopher of reaction during the
Restoration. His writings were the authoritative sources of reactionary ideas. Holding to a pessimistic view of human nature, he repudiated the principles of the French Revolution and its political and social institutions for they originated in what he saw as the anti-Christian
Enlightenment. According to him, it was
God that created the state and not a
social contract; order and stability were paramount in a society and this could only come about by obedience to an absolute monarchy and the
Roman Catholic Church; law was the expression of the customs and traditions not the fickle opinion of the people. He defended authoritarian government, a hierarchical social order based on natural inequality. In the book, ''L 'Examen de la philosophie de Bacon'', he attacked Bacon's
materialism.
De Bonald was of the same cloth as De Maistre but not as talented. In a sense, he only buttressed the convictions of already convinced reactionaries. Attacking the French Revolution as creating
individualism and
centralization in government, he championed the cause of absolute monarchy and the Catholic Church as the only means of securing tranquillity. De Bonald proposed restoring the medieval
guilds as a way of ensuring the rights of all classes.
Chateaubriand was an eloquent writer. So much so that he was described as a
Rousseau in Catholic dress; he is often considered the first
Romantic writer. He was not a reactionary per se; he accepted the changes brought by the revolution but not the revolutionary principles. He thought to mingle the new institutions with the old memories, traditions and ideals of the ''
ancien regime''. By enveloping the Restoration in Catholic trappings, he sought to give the
Bourbon regime stability and devotion of the people. Chateaubriand wrote novels (such as ''Atala'') with Christian themes and the ''Genie du Christianisme'', among others.
These men advanced and promoted Catholicism without necessarily adhering themselves to its teaching, in an attitude that will be later reflected by
Charles Maurras, an agnostic who supported Catholic clericalism. They saw the Catholic Church as essential in maintaining a conservative social order and the monarchy. They mark out the beginning of the mentality of reaction to the liberalizing forces of modernity and democracy.
Metternich and containment
The unleashing of democratic forces and ideas of the French Revolution had far-reaching consequences which threatened the established order of monarchical governments and promoted social unrest everywhere. Reaction set in against
republican and
liberal forces.
During the period of 1815-1848,
Prince Metternich, the
foreign minister of the
Austrian Empire, stepped in to organize containment of revolutionary forces through international alliances meant to prevent the spread of revolutionary fervour. At the
Congress of Vienna, he was very influential in establishing the new order, the
Concert of Europe, after the overthrow of
Napoleon.
After the Congress, Prince Metternich worked hard bolstering and stabilizing the conservative regime of the Restoration period. He worked furiously to prevent Russia's Tsar
Alexander I (who aided the liberal forces in Germany, Italy and France) from gaining influence in Europe. The Church was his principal ally, promoting it as a conservative principle of order while opposing democratic and liberal tendencies within the Church. His basic philosophy was based on
Edmund Burke who championed the need for old roots and an orderly development of society. He opposed democratic and
parliamentary institutions but favoured modernizing existing structures by gradual
reform. Despite Metternich's efforts a series of
revolutions rocked Europe in 1848.
Late 19th, and 20th century
In Western Europe in the 19th century,
liberals sought to create representative, very
secular regimes in the place of monarchies, which were considered undemocratic, and which had often been influenced by the Roman Catholic Church's teachings and clergy. Events such as the French Revolution brought dramatic changes in that respect. The reactionaries were thus those who wished for a Restoration of the
ancien regime, namely, parts of the aristocracy, the Catholics (often farmers and rural middle class) and the royalists, often lumped together in the "alliance of the Throne and the Altar".
In
France, at the beginnings of the
Third Republic, the parliamentary
left-wing consisted of the
Republicans and the
right-wing of the royalists, roughly speaking. "Reactionary", "conservative", "right-wing" and "royalist" were thus almost synonymous. In reaction to the alliance of monarchist and clerical forces (the latter wanting a major official role and influence for the Church), strong feelings of
anti-clericalism flared out at the left-wing. In
1905 the
liberal left-wing government decreed the confiscation of all Church property in
France, expelled all
religious orders, despite the massive opposition of the Catholic citizens, especially in rural areas.
Reactionary feelings were often coupled with an hostility to modern, industrial means of production and a nostalgia for a more rural society. The
Vichy regime in
France,
Francisco Franco's regime, the
Salazar regime in
Portugal, and Maurras's ''
Action Française'' political movements are examples of such traditional reactionary feelings, in favour of
authoritarian regimes with strong unelected leaders and with Catholicism as a
state religion. As an example, the
motto of Vichy France was ''travail, famille, patrie'' ("work, family, homeland") and its leader,
Marshal Philippe Pétain, declared that ''la terre, elle ne ment pas'' ("earth does not lie") in an indication of his belief that the truest life is rural and agrarian.
Fascism is generally considered to be reactionary due to its glorification of ancient national history and some of the social arrangements prior to the
Industrial Revolution of the
19th century. The Italian fascists showed a desire to bring about a new social order based on the ancient feudal principle of delegation (though without serfdom) in their enthusiasm for the
corporate state. Mussolini also said that "fascism is reaction" and "Fascism, which did not fear to call itself reactionary ...has not today any impediment against declaring itself illiberal and anti-liberal."
[4]
However, Gentile and Mussolini also attacked reactionary policies, particularly monarchism and - more veiled - some aspects of Italian conservative
Catholicism. They wrote "History doesn't travel backwards. The
fascist doctrine has not taken De Maistre as its prophet. Monarchical absolutism is of the past, and so is ecclesiolatry." They further elaborated in the political doctrine that fascism "is not reactionary [in the old way] but revolutionary". Conversely, they also explained that fascism was of the "right", not of the "left". Fascism was certainly not simply a return to tradition: it carried the centralised state beyond even what had been seen in
absolute monarchies—fascist
single-party states were as centralised as most
communist states—and fascism's intense
nationalism was certainly something not to be found in the period prior to the
French Revolution. The spirit of
Hegel's total philosophy was opposed to a return to a
Christian-based society, stressing instead the role of the
State.
The
Nazis also certainly did not consider themselves "reactionary" and in fact numbered the forces of "reaction" (Prussian
monarchists, nobility,
Roman Catholics) among their enemies right next to their "
Red Front" enemies (
communists) in the Nazi party march ''
Die Fahne hoch''. The fact that the Nazis called their
1933 rise to power the ''
National Revolution'', already tells that they ideologically detested the opposition to state revolutions from the clerical side.
Those
Clericalist movements sometimes labeled as
Clerical Fascists by their critics, can be considered reactionaries in terms of the 19th century, since they share some elements of
Fascism, while at the same time a return to the pre-revolutionary model of social relations, with a strong role for the Church.
Occurrences of the word ''reactionary''
★ "For the Bentham group
Burke finally represented sheer 'reactionism'".
[5]
★ "The philosophers of the 'reactionary' school — of the school to which
Coleridge belongs."
[6]
★ "The French aristocrats became hopelessly 'reactionary' and lent a willing ear to every plot, to every scheme, to every suggestion to overthrow the unconstitutional system established by the ''Charte'', in order to restore the Old Regime."
[7]
★ "Such men regarded
Socrates' attacks upon the choice of officials by lot (which then obtained in Athens) as 'reactionary', even dangerous to the republic."
[8]
★ "If belief in the old-fashioned virtues of self-reliance, thrift, government economy, of a balanced budget, of a stable currency, of fidelity of government to its obligations is 'reactionary', then you should be 'reactionary'."
[9]
★ "Goods prohibited to import: weapons, ammunition, explosives, military technical equipment, drugs, toxic chemicals, debauched and 'reactionary' products..."
[10]
★ "At the same time it must be emphasized that the Church, with all her "'reactionary'", royalist, personalistic and clerical aspects, was the strongest stumbling-block to the victory of National Socialism."
[11]
★ "We again renamed it, this time Raja’iyah Airfield (that is, ''Reactionary',' a favorite pejorative term used by the 'progressive' Arab regimes at the time). The airfield served us and the Jordanians very well." Norvell B. DeAtkine, formerly U.S. envoy to Jordan, in a recent memoir about the U.S. embassy there c. 1970.
[12]
★ "It is up to us to organize the people. As for the reactionaries in China, it is up to us to organize the people to overthrow them. Everything ''Reactionary'' is the same; if you don't hit it, it won't fall. This is also like sweeping the floor; as a rule, where the broom does not reach, the dust will not vanish of itself." Mao Zedong, (Quotations of Chairman Mao, Chapter 2 - Classes and Class Struggle.)
[13]
Miscellanea
★
Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn writes that the perfect
Roman Catholic "programme" is the
Spanish saying:
:::''Tener un hijo''
''Plantar un árbol''
''Escribir un libro''
("To have a son, to plant a tree, to write a book") is the perfect "'reactionary'" pattern; a synthesis of
patriarchalism,
agriculture and artistry.
[14]
This saying also has the merit of illuminating the critical differences between reactionaries in a strict sense and advocates of capitalism (who may, in certain circumstances, become their allies). To capitalism, agriculture isn't a matter of "planting a tree" because it makes one's estate look prettier, gives the children some shade, or in general represents part of a way of life. Agriculture under capitalism is a matter of mass production, sophisticated technology, and standardized futures contracts traded at commodity exchanges. Orange trees are planted when the orange concentrate futures market gives that signal -- an attitude anathema to reactionaries.
See also
★
French Revolution
★
Glossary of the French Revolution
★
List of people associated with the French Revolution
★
Age of Metternich
Notes
1. "Republicanism" throughout this article refers simply to support for the state being a republic rather than a monarchy.
2. Cited in the OED as "J. S. MILL in London & Westm. Rev. Mar. 276"
3. ''The French Revolution'', Robert Sobel, Ardmore Press, NY, l967. p. 85.
4. Gerarchia, March, 1923 quoted in George Seldes, ''Facts and Fascism'', eighth edition, New York: In Fact, 1943, p. 277.
5. ''Modern Humanists'', JM Robertson, 1891, pg 91. Cited in ''Oxford English Dictionary''.
6. ''London & Westminister Review'', J. S. Mill, l840, Mar., pg 276. Cited in ''Oxford English Dictionary''.
7. ''Liberalism and the Challenge of Fascism'', p. 159.
8. ''The Searching Mind of Greece'', John M. Warbeke, F.S. Crofts & Co., NY, l934. p. 137.
9. ''Addresses Upon the American Road'', Herbert Hoover, p. 139.
10. (Guide to Vietnamese custom procedures)
11. ''Liberty or Equality'', von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, p. 244.
12. Norvell B. DeAtkine, (on-line memoir)
13. Quotations of Chairman Mao, [1]
14. ''Liberty or Equality'', von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, p. 186.
Bibliography
★ ''Liberty or Equality'',
Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Christendom Press, Front Royal, Virginia, l993.
★ ''Liberalism and the Challenge of Fascism, Social Forces in England and France 1815-1870'',
J. Salwyn Schapiro, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., NY, l949. (with over 34 mentions of the word "reactionary" in political context)
★ ''The Reactionary Revolution, The Catholic Revival in French Literature, 1870/1914'', Richard Griffiths, Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., NY, l965.
★ ''
Oxford English Dictionary'', 20 Vol. 31 references on the use of the term.
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