The bourgeois parties misrepresented the French electorate’s divided feelings on Dreyfus.

Evidence

The disunity of the French people was apparent in each family. Characteristically enough, it found political expression only in the ranks of the Labor party. All others, as well as all parliamentary groups, were solidly against Dreyfus at the beginning of the campaign for a retrial. All this means, however, is that the bourgeois parties no longer represented the true feelings of the electorate, for the same disunity that was so patent among the socialists obtained among almost all sections of the populace. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 328

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the general theme of parliamentary representation failing during the Dreyfus crisis, a pattern Arendt uses to develop her account of the mob and the failure of the republic.