Maurrassisme

Maurras' philosophical influences ranged from Plato and Aristotle to Joseph de Maistre, passing through Dante, Thomas Aquinas and Auguste Comte.

His historical influences ranged from Sainte-Beuve to Fustel de Coulanges passing through Hippolyte Taine and Ernest Renan.

[3] More precisely with regard to politics, Maurrasisme rested on the following policies to ensure national cohesion: In the line of positivism, Maurras considered that societal organisation and institution ought to be the fruit of the selection imposed by the centuries, "organising empiricism" being considered more effective than idealized theories, because of its being adapted to each national situation.

He considered that the people's direct attachment to the sovereign's authority and the moral cement of the Catholic Church were unifying forces which would be enough to ensure national unity in a largely decentralized political system.

It may be noted that it was through pragmatism and obsession with civil war that, in 1914 as in 1940, Maurras remained faithful to his principle of nationalist compromise, or the union nationale in time of crisis, and supported both Georges Clemenceau and Philippe Pétain in this.

As a partisan of duc d'Orléans and his descendants (the Duke of Guise, then the Count of Paris), he dreamed of converting the Action française, newly created by nationalist republicans, to the royalist ideal, and of gathering to him the remainder of traditional French royalty, exemplified by the Marquis of la Tour du Pin or General de Charette.