ABSTRACT
The divisions of the left allowed the Bloc national government to pursue the assertive foreign policy its leaders considered necessary to maintain France's security after the war. The war had exposed them to heady rhetoric about democracy, national self-determination, and communist revolution. The 1931 Colonial Exposition in Paris, like the pre-war world's fairs, attracted large crowds and encouraged visitors to identify with the "greater France" whose diverse peoples it displayed. The centrist ministry of Raymond Poincar, who held office from 1926 to 1929, appeared to demonstrate, on the other hand, that the Third Republic could, when necessary, pull itself out of political crises it periodically plunged into. His government broadened access to the educational system by making secondary education tuition-free, and it passed France's first comprehensive social security law in 1928, providing a safety net of medical insurance and pensions for France's poorer citizens. Poincar demanded power to bypass the regular workings of the parliamentary system.
