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Part I The making of modem France 1
1 The making of modern France 3
1.1 Introduction and objectives 3
1.2 The ancien regime 4
1.3 The French Revolution: the making of
modern France 5
1.4 The French Revolution: a divisive heritage 6
1.5 The Third Republic, 1870-1940 9
1.6 Vichy and the French Resistance, 1940-4 13
1.7 The Fourth Republic, 1944-58 14
1.8 The decline and fall of the Fourth Republic 16
1.9 Conclusion and summary 20
2 France since 1958 22
2.1 Introduction and objectives 22
2.2 De Gaulle's Republic 23
2.3 May 1968: the Fifth Republic in crisis 26
2.4 Georges Pompidou: the acceptable face
of Gaullism? 28
2.5 Valery Giscard d'Estaing: the aristocracy
in power, 1974-81 31
2.6 Franqois Mitterrand, 1981-8: the chameleon 34
2.7 Mitterrand's second term, 1988-95 37
2.8 President Chirac, 1995-: awaiting judgement 39
2.9 Conclusion and summary 40
3 French political culture: myths and realities 42
3.1 Introduction and objectives 42
3.2 Political culture in France: the
traditional reading 42
3.3 Traits of French political culture 45
3.4 Conclusion and summary 53
Part II Institutions and power 55
4 An evolving constitution 57
4.1 Introduction and objectives 57
4.2 The 1958 constitution 58
4.3 The evolving constitution 62
4.4 Constitutional amendments 65
4.5 What type of political system is the
Fifth Republic? 67
4.6 Conclusion and summary 68
5 Presidents and Prime Ministers 70
5.1 Introduction and objectives 70
5.2 Political leadership in the French
republican tradition 71
5.3 The French presidency 72
5.4 Prime ministerial political leadership 80
5.5 Conclusion and summary 85
6 A parliamentary democracy? 87
6.1 Introduction and objectives 87
6.2 Parliament in the Third and Fourth Republics:
an elusive sovereignty? 87
6.3 The organisation of the French parliament in the
Fifth Republic 89
6.4 Resources controlled by the executive 91
6.5 The French parliament: pour quoi faire? 95
6.6 Beyond parliamentary scrutiny: the judiciary and
the media 99
6.7 Conclusion and summary 101
7 An administrative state? 103
7.1 Introduction and objectives 103
7.2 Features of the French civil service 104
7.3 A unified and indivisible state? 109
7.4 Conclusion and summary 113
8 Local and regional governance 115
8.1 Introduction and objectives 115
8.2 Patterns of French local governance 115
8.3 Decentralisation 119
8.4 Who gained the most from the
decentralisation reforms? 121
8.5 The French prefect and the decentralised state 125
8.6 Whither decentralisation? 128
8.7 Conclusion and summary 130
Part III Political forces and representation 133
9 The development of the French party system 135
9.1 Introduction and objectives 135
9.2 The origins of the French party system 135
9.3 Parties in the Fifth Republic 139
9.4 The evolving party system: from confusion to
bipolarity, 1958-83 141
9.5 The evolving party system: from bipolarity
to confusion, 1983-96 146
9.6 The French party system in comparative context 149
9.7 Conclusion and summary 150
10 The presidential parties 152
10.1 Introduction and objectives 152
10.2 The Gaullists 153
10.3 The UDF: a failed presidential party 158
10.4 The Socialist Party 162
10.5 Conclusion and summary 167
11 The anti-establishment parties 169
11.1 Introduction and objectives 169
11.2 Whatever happened to the French
Communist Party? 169
11.3 The National Front: the reluctant
anti-establishment party 175
11.4 The Greens: a flash in the pan? 181
11.5 The minor parties 184
11.6 Conclusion and summary 185
12 The representation of interests 187
12.1 Introduction and objectives 187
12.2 The context of French interest group activity 187
12.3 French economic interest groups 189
12.4 Non-economic associations and new
social movements 196
12.5 Interest groups and the French political system 198
12.6 Pluralism, corporatism and the
'French exception' 202
12.7 Conclusion and summary 204
Part IV Reshaping modern France 205
13 French society and economy 207
13.1 Introduction and objectives 207
13.2 The evolution of French society: social consensus
or social fracture? 207
13.3 The French economy and economic management 212
13.4 Dirigisme and its limits 216
13.5 Conclusion and summary 219
14 Immigration, integration and cultural diversity: the
case of the Maghreb community in France 221
14.1 Introduction and objectives 221
14.2 French immigration policy, 1945-95: an
overview 221
14.3. Immigration, integration, assimilation and
ethnicity: conceptual problems and the
Jacobin state 225
14.4 The political participation of Muslim groups
in France 227
14.5 The place of Muslims in French society 229
14.6 Conclusion and summary 233
15 France in the European Union 236
15.1 Introduction and objectives 236
15.2 France and the history of European integration 237
15.3 French Presidents and Europe in the
Fifth Republic 238
15.4 The bare essentials: Franco-German relations 246
15.5 The European Union and the French
political system 248
15.6 Conclusion and summary 250
16 Conclusion 253
16.1 Introduction and objectives 253
16.2 The end of the French exception? 253
16.3 Forever France? 260
Appendices 263
1 The 1995 French presidential election: a sociological
profile of first-round electors 265
2 National Assembly elections, 1958-97 266
3 Presidential elections in the Fifth Republic:
first ballot 267
4 Six presidential election run-offs 268
5 Referendums in the Fifth Republic 269
Glossary 270
References and bibliography 272
Index 287