| Edition |
Fifth edition. |
| Description |
xix, 535 pages : illustrations, maps ; 26 cm |
| Note |
Vincent Wright appears as the sole author of the 3rd ed. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
1. French political traditions in a changing context -- A legacy of conflict -- The régime -- The church -- The politics of class -- Le parti du mouvement et le parti de l'ordre -- Nationalisms -- State traditions -- The common core -- Liberty, equality, fraternity -- Dirigisme -- The state : image and reality -- The changing context of French political traditions -- Post-war boom : the trente glorieuses -- Globalisation -- Europe -- Political conflict and the state : transformations -- Zones of consensus -- The dismantling of dirigisme -- The state tradition : challenges from within -- Refining political conflict -- The survival of traditions -- The state tradition -- Patterns of political conflict -- Concluding remarks -- Further reading -- 2. From Fourth to Fifth Republic -- Ultimately, a failure : the Fourth Republic (1946-58) -- The Gaullist agenda -- Between Washington and Westminster -- Readings of the Fifth Republic -- The republican monarchy -- A 'parliamentary régime' -- The Constitutional Council and the État de droit -- The constitution in flux -- Further reading -- 3. Presidents and prime ministers : the personal factor -- Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) -- Georges Pompidou (1908-74) -- Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1926- ) -- François Mitterrand (1916-96) -- Jacques Chirac (1932- ) -- Prime ministers -- Concluding remarks -- Further reading -- |
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4. The sources of executive power -- Constitutional resources -- Prime minister and government -- The president -- Administrative resources -- The Matignon machine -- The Élysée -- President and prime minister : political resources -- Concluding remarks -- Further reading -- 5. Executive policy-making : the variable diarchy -- Presidential government -- Presidential control of the government -- Processes of presidential policy-making -- Domains of presidential policy-making -- Presidential policy-making : limitations and models -- Cohabitation : prime ministerial government? -- Cohabitation and party politics -- Cohabitation : oiling the wheels -- Cohabitation : patronage and policy-making -- Models of cohabitation -- Ministers and government -- The role of ministers under the Fifth Republic -- The variable nature of ministerial power -- Institutionalised tensions and the elusive goal of co-ordination -- Further reading -- |
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6. The French parliament : decline, and resurgence? -- The constitutional assault upon parliament : the provisions -- The separation of powers -- Restrictions on parliamentary sessions -- The limitation on parliament's law-making powers -- The passage of government business -- A less accountable executive -- The Constitutional Council as anti-parliamentary watchdog -- The decline of parliament : factors unconstitutional and extra-constitutional -- An overbearing executive -- Le fait majoritaire -- Parliament's lack of resources -- Absenteeism and impotence -- A resurgent parliament? -- The survival of the Senate -- Parliament's institutional reinforcement since 1974 -- The loosening of parliamentary discipline -- Obstructions, amendments and private members' bills -- Concluding remarks -- Further reading -- 7. The Left and the Greens : the dilemma of government -- The divided Left -- The Parti Communiste Français (PCF) -- The Fifth Republic and the decline of the PCF -- The PCF's mutation : too little, too late? -- The Parti Socialiste (PS) -- Alliances -- Factions -- Leadership -- Members and elites -- Ideology and policies -- Money -- Electoral support -- The far Left -- Citoyens et Radicaux -- The ecology groupings -- Concluding remarks -- Further reading -- |
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8. The Right : domination and division -- The Gaullists -- The search for identity : 1958-62 -- Growth, consolidation and hegemony : 1962-73 -- The loss of power : 1973-76 -- Organisational renovation, electoral and strategic impasse : 1976-81 -- Chirac's two defeats : 1981-88 -- Disarray and victory : 1988-95 -- Victory and disarray : 1995-2000 -- The non-Gaullist moderate Right (NGMR) -- Conflict, co-operation and the UMP -- Other right-wing groups -- The extreme Right : permanence and isolation of the Front National -- The far Right's lasting breakthrough -- The FN in the French political system -- Concluding remarks -- Further reading -- 9. Transformations of the party system : continuity and change -- Party configurations, 1956-2005 -- The transitional phase, 1958-62 -- Gaullist 'dominance', 1962-74 -- The 'bipolar quadrille', 1974-81 -- Socialist 'dominance', 1981-86 -- The challenge to 'parties of government', 1986-97 -- Full circle? 1997-present -- Bipolar multipartism -- Bipolarity : characteristics -- Multipartism : characteristics -- Institutional dynamics -- Social developments, new issues and voting behaviour -- Personal and party strategies -- Concluding remarks -- Further reading -- |
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10. The administration : foundations, myth and changing reality -- The foundations and myth of administrative power -- The French State at high water : the Fifth Republic to 1986 -- The bases of administrative power -- An omnipotent administration? -- The administration transformed? -- New pressures -- A shrinking State -- The administration and the limits to change -- Concluding remarks -- Further reading -- 11. The State and the pressure groups -- The domination-crisis model -- The domination-crisis model : evidence in favour -- The domination-crisis model : objections -- The endemic and open conflict model -- The endemic and open conflict model : evidence in favour -- The endemic and open conflict model : objections -- The corporatist and concerted politics models -- Corporatism : evidence in favour -- Corporatism : objections -- The pluralist model -- Pluralism : evidence in favour -- Pluralism : objections -- An untidy reality -- Mixed models -- Determinants of group influence -- Concluding remarks -- Further reading -- |
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12. Paris and the provinces : the post-Jacobin State -- The institutions and the actors -- The representative assemblies and their executives -- The prefectoral authorities -- The local field services -- Other local bodies -- Jacobinism and its limits : France before decentralisation -- The bases of central power -- Local influences in the one and indivisible Republic -- Decentralisation : the measures -- The Defferre reforms -- Defferre to Jospin -- Decentralisation under Raffarin -- Europe and the regions -- Local authorities and private business -- Assessing decentralisation : plus ça change? -- Subsidiarity -- Rationalisation -- Democratisation -- Assessing decentralisation : the local system transformed -- Local finance -- Local authority staff -- Local economic development -- Local policy-making -- New local actors -- Networks and local authority entrepreneurship -- Concluding remarks : a continuing process -- Further reading -- 13. French justice and the elusive État de droit -- French judicial traditions : law in the service of the State -- Main actors in the contemporary judicial system -- The European Court of Justice (ECJ) -- The European Court of Human Rights -- The Constitutional Council -- The Cour de Justice de la République (Court of Justice of the Republic) -- The ordinary courts -- The Conseil d'État (Council of State) -- The Cour des Comptes (Court of Accounts) -- The judicialisation of public policy -- The spread of litigation -- The reinforcement of judicial review -- The extension of judicial intervention -- The criminalisation of new areas -- The internalisation of judicial constraints -- Judges as policy-makers -- The decline of special courts -- The spread of quasi-judicial procedures -- Judges as policy advisers -- The reinforcement of judicial independence -- Judicial activism and corruption cases -- Explaining judicialisation -- The État de droit : obstacles and resistance -- Concluding remarks -- Further reading -- |
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14. France and European Integration -- European integration : process and interpretation -- The narrative of integration -- Interpreting integration (1) : realism, intergovernmentalism -- Interpreting integration (2) : neo-functionalism, institutionalism -- France and the integration process -- France and Europe : benefits and costs -- Presidential perspectives -- The Franco-German partnership : reconciliation, collusion, and decline? -- Europe, the French state and French public policy-making -- Speaking with one voice? France and European policy-making -- Implementation : the slow man of Europe? -- France and European policies -- The Common Agricultural Policy -- France, Europe and the neo-liberal paradigm change -- The Common Foreign and Security Policy -- Voters, parties and Europe -- Concluding remarks -- Further reading -- 15. Conclusion -- Slow growth, unemployment, public spending -- The politics of constraint -- A weak régime? -- Further reading -- Appendices -- 1. Chronological table : main events from the Revolution to the collapse of the Fourth Republic -- 2. Chronological table : main events form the foundation of the Fifth Republic until 2005 -- 3. Voting behaviour, presidential election, first ballot, 2002 -- 4. Voting behaviour, legislative elections, second ballot, 2002 -- 5. Voting behaviour in two referendums on Europe, 1992 and 2005 -- 6. Abbreviations for French parties -- 7. Other abbreviations. |
| Subject |
France -- Politics and government -- 1945-
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Executive power -- France.
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Politics, Practical -- France.
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| Added Author |
Wright, Vincent.
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| ISBN |
0415357330 hardback |
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9780415357333 hardback |
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0415357322 paperback |
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9780415357326 paperback |
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