ABSTRACT
The French political system has been a testing ground for explanations of the role of voluntary associations in modern states. This paper discusses, the impact of the political system was decisive for the structure of the organization and for the organization's capacity to survive the transformations of peasant life. The explanation has been, in brief, that traditional aspects of French society have stunted the growth of voluntary associations, and that the absence of such intermediary groups has kept the political system both unstable and undemocratic. The voluntary organizations of traditional classes tend to be interpreted as transitory or weak forms of the groups of modern society. The organization itself explained the difficulties in organizing peasants by a special set of peasant vices whose root was individualism and whose social correlative was the weakness of discipline. The survival of corporative organizations cannot be adequately accounted for by what remains of traditional society.
