ABSTRACT
The position of locally elected notables was much more powerful than the texts suggested. This observation, according to historians, was true as early as the July Monarchy (1830-48). The position of local notables was reinforced by their justifiable claim that unlike the prefects and many other officials, their local roots were deep and strong: almost to a man, they lived in the localities they represented, and had usually been born there. Second, most elected notables showed great institutional longevity. A handful of mayors have served half a century: Édouard Herriot, mayor of Lyon from 1905 till 1957, and Jacques Chaban-Delmas, mayor of Bordeaux from 1947 to 1995, are two illustrious examples. Others have handed on local office from father to son like a family heirloom. Very many more have served, as mayors of villages or cities, or as conseillers généraux, for two to three decades. The notables thus had ample evidence for their claim to know local people and problems better than the prefects, who typically lasted just two or three years in any single post before disappearing from the département with the inevitability of Puccini heroines.
