TOWARD UNDERSTANDING THE BASES OF DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL INSTABILITY: A CASE STUDY OF FRENCH SOCIAL AUTHORITY PATTERNS.
Abstract
This report describes the modal style of authority relations existing among students and teachers in French secondary schools. Students, in the early years of French secondary education, develop two distinct styles of behavior toward authority: one in which they are very submissive to a highly directive superordinate and another in which they are completely insubordinate. The same group of students will alternately participate in one and the other of these antithetical forms of behavior. In the later years of secondary school, this pattern continues to exist, but is no longer dominant and has been replaced by a pattern in which the pupils behave as if their conduct were being precisely prescribed, but in which actually their teachers rarely issue directives to them. The factors responsible for the development of the original pattern and its transformation into the latter form are examined and explained. This case study is the core of a general model of social authority patterns in French society which will be used to explain French political behavior in general, and, more specifically, the bases of French political instability. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1969
- Accession Number
- AD0691285
Entities
People
- Harry Eckstein
- William R. Schonfeld
Organizations
- Princeton University