Table of Contents
Part I Introduction 1 The making of modern France
1.1 Introduction
1.2 The ancien régime
1.3 The French Revolution: the making of modern France
1.4 The French Revolution: a divisive heritage
1.5 The Third Republic, 1870–1940
1.6 Vichy and the French Resistance 1940–4
1.7 The Fourth Republic 1944–58
2 France since 1958
2.1 Introduction
2.2 De Gaulle’s republic
2.3 May ’68: the Fifth Republic in crisis
2.4 Georges Pompidou, 1969–74: the acceptable face of Gaullism?
2.5 Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, 1974–81
2.6 François Mitterrand, 1981–8: the chameleon
2.7 Mitterrand’s second term, 1988–95
2.8 Jacques Chirac, 1995–7: the abrupt presidency
2.9 Jospin and the plural left coalition, 1997–2002
2.10 Chirac’s second term, 2002–7
2.11 Nicolas Sarkozy’s fast presidency, 2007–12
2.12 François Hollande’s ‘normal’ presidency, 2012–17
2.13 Concluding remarks
3 French political culture: representations and realities
3.1 Political culture in France: the traditional reading
3.2 A divided France? Post-revolutionary political culture(s)
3.3 Exceptionalism, decline and revival
3.4 Concluding remarks
Part II Institutions and power
4 Presidents and prime ministers
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Political leadership in the French Republican tradition
4.3 The 1958 constitution
4.4 The French presidency
4.5 Presidential style
4.6 Presidential resources
4.7 Prime-ministerial political leadership
4.8 Changing temporalities of French politics: towards a fast presidency?
4.9 Concluding comments
5 Checks and balances?
5.1 Introduction
5.2 The evolving constitution
5.3 The French parliament
5.4 The organisation of the French parliament in the Fifth Republic
5.5 Parliament in the Fifth Republic: an emasculated legislature?
5.6 Political dynamics and the operation of parliament
5.7 The judicialisation of French politics?
5.8 Concluding remarks
6 Reforming the state
6.1 Introduction
6.2 The French civil service: characteristics, context and culture
6.3 Reforming the French state: the public-service narrative
6.4 Reforming the French state: the state-productivity narrative and its limits
6.5 The French state today: continuity, conflict, cohesion
6.6 Concluding comments
7 A decentralised republic in a unitary state? Local and regional government
7.1 Introduction
7.2 From the French model of territorial administration to the decentralised republic
7.3 Actors and institutions of territorial governance
7.4 Dimensions and dilemmas of territorial governance
7.5 Concluding remarks
Part III Political forces and representation
8 The French party system: change and understanding change
8.1 Introduction
8.2 The French party system before 1981
8.3 The changing French party system
8.4 Cohesion and continuity of the French party system
8.5 Concluding remarks
9 French parties today
9.1 Introduction
9.2 The Republicans and their allies
9.3 Socialists, Communists and Greens
9.4 The Front National
9.5 Concluding remarks
10 The representation of interests
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Economic interest groups
10.3 Social movements old and new
10.4 Groups and the French political system
10.5 Concluding remarks
Part IV Reshaping modern France
11 Society, citizenship and welfare
11.1 Introduction
11.2 The evolution of French society: social consensus or social fracture?
11.3 The economy and economic governance
11.4 Social policy, the welfare state and the French social model
11.5 Concluding remarks
12 The Republican model of citizenship and its limits
12.1 Introduction
12.2 The French Republican tradition
12.3 The Republican model and the challenges of multiculturalism
12.4 The Republican tradition and the challenge of territory: the case of lesser used languages
12.5 Multiple identities in contemporary France: a case study from Brittany
12.6 Concluding remarks
13 Europe and Europeanisation
13.1 Introduction
13.2 France and the European Union
13.3 Quelle finalité européenne? The French vision of Europe
13.4 France and Europeanisation
13.5 Concluding remarks
14 The Republic in danger?
14.1 Timeless institutions?
14.2 The Republic in danger!
14.3 The danger of hysteresis
