Revolutionizing Time, Reforging Social Orders: State-Building Success and the Enforcement of Symbolic Programs in Revolutionary France

Abstract

How do state builders reshape society? While existing work shows they often rely on violence, education, elite co-optation, and institution building, this article underscores the importance of symbolic programs. When intensely enforced, symbolic programs reshape social orders by forging new social bonds and socializing individuals into state builders’ governing principles. I test this argument using subnational variation in the enforcement of the French Republican calendar—a symbolic program that politicized time, labor, and rest, rightfully regulated by the state, rather than sacred duties governed by the Catholic Church—and its association with labor conflicts. In departments where the calendar was more strongly enforced, it fostered political understandings of labor and rest, reduced coordination costs, and increased mobilization potential. Using original data and a difference-in-differences design, I find that more intense enforcement of the calendar is associated with a higher likelihood of labor conflict onset, demonstrating the long-term social effects of symbolic state-building programs.