Poujadism

Readers of Murray Rothbard’s outstanding essay “Poujade: Promise or Menace?” on today’s LRC may wonder what became of Poujade and the movement he founded after 1956, when Murray wrote his article. Unfortunately, after the strong showing of his movement in the 1956 parliamentary elections, there is not much to tell. (Incidentally, the youngest member of parliament from Poujade’s list was Jean-Marie Le Pen, later the head of the National Front. He and Poujade later had a falling out.) Poujade endorsed the Fifth Republic of Charles de Gaulle in 1958, and his mass movement faded from view. His opposition to taxes and centralized government bureaucracy remain, though, a lasting legacy. Poujade died in 2003.

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8:44 am on December 29, 2015