Bureaucrats and Beggars: French Social Policy in the Age of the Enlightenment

by Thomas McStay Adams

In the mid-eighteenth century in France, the royal authorities launched a new campaign to sweep beggars from the streets, pinning their hopes on the creation of a uniform royal network of lock-ups in which anyone found begging might be detained. In this study, Adams probes the accomplishments and the failings of these so-called dépôts de mendicité , as seen by critics of the experiment (including learned judges and influential spokesmen of the provincial Estates) and as seen by those responsible for its the provincial intendants , the royal engineers, the doctors, the inspectors, the contractors, and various givers of advice. He shows how the debate--both internal and external--over the operation of the dépôts contributed to the intellectual ferment of the Enlightenment and the Revolution. The resulting web of reasoning and empirical data gave support to Montesquieu's principle that the state owes every one of its citizens "a secure subsistence, suitable food and
clothing, and a manner of life that is not contrary to good health."

416 pages, Hardcover

First published December 19, 1990

Reviews

[Ietrio · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite an unpleasant read. Especially the first part which is terribly scholastic and dry. Yet I found myself turning page after page interested to find out more about the period and the aristocrat view of the beggar. So far I could find a striking resemblance between the current European refugee crisis and the Jewish situation back in 1938-1939 when the self-named free and free thinking world could not give a damn about some refugees. Maybe 12 months ago I would have found this book simply dry and scholastic. Yet today I could not help finding how entire passages are repeated verbatim by the French politicians from the whole spectrum when it comes to the people of Syria and Iraq coming by foot in their countries. The same hysteric fears. The same scientism and naturism to justify a petty racist and xenophobic agenda. Suddenly 400 years of political change are turned into plain propaganda. Sure, we have hot tap water. But only the good servants of the king that pay taxes. In prisons there is only cold water and open toilets.

Thank you for spending the time to write this book.