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Early steps in the development of collective interests and a national identity were taken in the
formation of parliamentary-type structures in several European countries. Before a national press
came into existence and made possible the mobilization of voters in strong national party
organizations, parliaments were more assemblies of regional interest groupings than meetings of
citizens with common loyalties to a national society. Tarde did not discount the effects of such
electoral reforms as expanded suffrage in facilitating this change; but he particularly stressed the
contributions of newspapers.
The political system is not alone in needing a normative consensus in order to function, however;
the operation of the economy depends upon an analogous foundation: lacking certain basic agreements
among large numbers of persons, it would be clearly impossible to set prices or work out
exchanges. 117 In the earliest markets, there were no fixed prices; only through extensive bargaining
between buyer and seller could a price be reached. With broadening normative consensus, and
despite temporal and geographical differences, prices could be relatively standardized from one
market to the next. Extended negotiations were no longer necessary between producer and consumer.
Through advertising, producers attempt to compensate for the loss of direct personal influence,
although personal influence retains its importance in certain situations.
Conversations among family members and friends lead to the establishment of certain hierarchies
of needs and desires, according to which values are assigned to commodities. And in the actual
buying situation adept salesmanship is not to be discounted. 118 Further, in major transactions on the
wholesale level, the role of personal influence remains crucial in settling prices. 119 The entire system
of markets, prices, and retail and wholesale transactions is thus held together, Tarde stressed, by the
complementary influences of newspapers and personal influence.
Focusing on political authority and economic transactions, Tarde gives a detailed demonstration of
the ways in which newspapers, complemented by personal influence, disseminate and reinforce the
norms of a social system.
The next logical step is, of course, to formulate some general principles through which these
phenomena operate. One basic principle was that the more distant the source of communication, the
less strong is its influence. Highly centralized France, where geographical, psychological, and
sociological distance overlap more than in most other countries, is, appropriately, the perfect
illustration of this assertion; ever since the late sixteenth century, Paris has been the undisputed
educational, cultural, and industrial apex of French society. In several discussions Tarde illustrates
this principle by showing that the impact of Parisian models on the geographically and socially
outlying sectors of French society is relatively weak. 120
There are exceptions, however, and the general rule should not blind the observer to deviations:
for example, within the very shadow of modern industrial capitals can still be found “villages . . .
where old needs and old ideas remain, where people order their cloth from the weaver, like to eat
brown bread, speak only in dialect, believe in sorcerers and magic.” 121
From the general distance principle is derived the proposition that imitation descends from social
superior to social inferior. In discussing, for example, the French peasantry, Tarde tells us how much
originality to expect at this lowest level of society:
Go into the dwelling of a peasant and examine his belongings: from his fork and his glass down to his shirt . . . there is not one article
of clothing, not one tool which, before descending as far as his cottage, did not begin by being a luxury item used by kings, or
warrior chieftains, or ecclesiastics, then by noblemen, then by bourgeois, then by the neighboring landowners. Have a
peasant speak: you will not find in him a notion of law, agriculture, politics or arithmetic, not a family sentiment or a patriotic thought,