ABSTRACT

The Government and Politics of France has been the leading textbook on French politics for over a generation, and continues to provide students with a comprehensive and incisive introduction to the intricacies of French politics and government. This edition updates every chapter, with the addition of a new chapter on France and Europe. Recent events necessitate a new edition, particularly the 2002 elections and the growing interpenetration of France and the EU in student programmes, as well as in the real world.
Whether covering the shifting balance within France's two-headed executive, the paradoxes of the French party politics, the power and fragmentation of France's administration, the growing assertiveness of French local government, or the newly visible world of the judiciary, The Government and Politics of France has always sought to confront established paradigms with the complex and untidy reality of French politics at the grass roots.

chapter 2|18 pages

From Fourth to Fifth Republic

chapter 3|18 pages

Presidents and prime ministers

The personal factor

chapter 5|32 pages

Executive policy-making

The variable diarchy

chapter 6|27 pages

The French parliament

Decline – and resurgence?

chapter 7|48 pages

The Left and the Greens

The dilemma of government

chapter 8|36 pages

The Right

Domination and division

chapter 9|29 pages

Transformations of the party system

Continuity and change

chapter 10|31 pages

The administration

Foundations, myth and changing reality

chapter 12|40 pages

Paris and the provinces

The post-Jacobin state

chapter 15|14 pages

Conclusion