Le maurrassisme en tant que système philosophique, ancrant une véritable philosophie politique, est presque mort-né. Le positivisme de Charles Maurras est en effet vite démodé. A la veille de la Grande Guerre, deux philosophies de l'action se présentent aux jeunes gens nés vers 1890 et animés de sentiments nationalistes ou patriotiques : l’une de Henri Bergson et l’autre de Maurice Blondel. La philosophie bergsonienne a le vent en poupe, tandis que la philosophie blondélienne se trouve marginalisée ou est à peine connue. Après la guerre les cartes sont redistribuées. Le bergsonisme s’estompe ; la philosophie de Blondel fait sa percée ; et l’Action française arbore enfin son propre pôle philosophique, représenté par le thomisme de Jacques Maritain. La condamnation romaine de 1926 prive le mouvement de cet apport considérable. Dès lors, le maurrassisme perd tout ancrage philosophique valable.

If one considers "maurrassisme" as a set of ideas that includes a political philosophy purporting to carry conviction, it may be considered to have been virtually stillborn, inasmuch as the Positivism of Charles Maurras was not in keeping with the intellectual climate of the day in the early twentieth century. In the years preceding the Great War, for the young generation animated by nationalist or patriotic sentiment—those born around 1890—there was a choice of “philosophy of action”, either that of Henri Bergson or that of Maurice Blondel. The philosophy of the former rode then on the crest of the wave, whereas interest in Blondel’s philosophy was much more circumscribed. The position changed after the Great War. Bergson’s philosophy lost some of its power of attraction; the influence of Blondel widened; and the Action Française came by the first half of the 1920s to have its own distinguished philosopher in the person of Jacques Maritain, whose Thomism provided some sort of backing for Maurras’s idea of an alliance between Positivists and Catholics. The Vatican condemnation of 1926 deprived the Action Française of this considerable asset. Henceforth, “maurrassisme” lacked any proper philosophical compass.