The Government and Politics of France

Front Cover
Routledge, Sep 27, 2006 - Political Science - 560 pages
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.

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Contents

1 French political traditions in a changing context
1
2 From Fourth to Fifth Republic
49
The personal factor
67
4 The sources of executive power
85
The variable diarchy
109
Decline and resurgence?
141
The dilemma of government
168
Domination and division
216
Etat de droit
389
14 France and European integration
422
15 Conclusion
487
Main events from the Revolution to the collapse of the Fourth Republic
501
Main events from the foundation of the Fifth Republic until 2005
503
penetration of each social group by candidate
514
penetration of each social group by Left and Right
516
Appendix 5 Voting behaviour in two referendums on Europe 20 September 1992 and 29 May 2005
517

Continuity and change
252
Foundations myth and changing reality
281
11 The state and the pressure groups
312
The postJacobin state
349
Appendix 6 Abbreviations for French parties
518
Appendix 7 Other abbreviations
520
Index
522
Copyright

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About the author (2006)

Andrew Knapp is Professor of Politics at the University of Reading.

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