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| | Articles - Radical Party (France) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17) |
 | | The radical-led government led by René Waldeck-Rousseau had been responsible for major reforms since 1899 and the creation of Radical Party was an attempt to regroup all the radical republicans into a unified political force to support him against the political influences of the Catholic Church. |
 | | It was successful, and Waldeck-Rousseau's successors, Émile Combes and Maurice Rouvier, maintained a radical agenda, culminating in the 1905 laws which formed the backbone of laïcité, France's separation of church and state. |
 | | For the latter part of the Third Republic, the Radicals, generally representing anti-clerical peasant and petit bourgeois voters, were usually the largest party in parliament, but with their anti-clerical agenda accomplished, the party lacked any real guiding force. |
| www.gaple.com /articles/Radical_Party_(France) (841 words) |
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