Table of Contents
List of Tables and Figures.
Acknowledgements.
Abbreviations.
Part I. Introduction. .
Part II: A History of Conflict and Revolt. .
France and modernity.
Domestic conflict and international relations.
Political ideology and political parties.
The polarization of the labour movement and the patronat.
Republicanism and manifestations of a more moderate history.
An exceptional history?.
Part III: Political Exceptionalism, 1945-1981.
Consensus politics in Western Europe since 1945.
French politics in the post-war era.
The persistence of radicalism and the absence of Fordist compromise.
Part IV: The End of Exceptionalism? The 1980s and 1990s.
The decline of overt conflict.
Explaining consensus: the 1980s as a moment of tripartite harmony.
Consensus beyond tripartism.
Part V: Social Democracy and the Left. .
The history of social democracy.
The nature of the left in France.
Characterizing the Socialist Party.
A crisis of social democracy?.
Part VI: The Paradoxes of Gaullist Modernization. .
Authoritarian aspects of de Gaulle's rule.
The progress of political stability and democracy.
De Gaulle's foreign policy and the uses of grandeur. .
De Gaulle and the economy: modernization from above.
The unevenness of socio-economic change.
Part VII: The Historical Significance of May 1968. .
Régis Debray and Gilles Lipovestsky: the ruse of reason.
The results of May.
The spirit of May and the Socialist years.
Locating May historically.
Part VIII: The Waning of Intellectual Commitment.
The place of intellectuals in post-war political life.
The decline of the left intellectual.
The re-emergence of liberal political thought.
Part IX: Conclusions.
The end of history.
Fordism and post-Fordism: the regulation school.
Theorizing change.
Appendices.
Bibliography.
Index.
