Jack Hayward

For a thousand years France has struggled to impose unity upon its diverse components. For most of the time its leaders have sought to define its identity by opposition to the 'Anglo-Saxons': first England, then Britain and the USA. The prologue explores France's self-image by contrast with the Anglo-American counter-identity. Part one deals with the unfinished Revolution from 1789 to 1878 when the Third Republic achieved relative stability. After examining the variety of symbolic representatives of Frenchness in the search for democratic legitimacy and national unanimity, the enduring divisions in French society are explained in their ideological, social, religious, territorial and political aspects. Emphasis is given to the role of writers and intellectuals in expressing these cleavages before analysing how parliamentary democracy was established by the Third Republic. Part two starts by relating French political paralysis to the slowness of socio-economic modernisation before turning to the polarizing role of intellectuals in perpetuating varieties of Left and Right battles over who personified anti-France . The adversarial character of French party politics is then considered as it fluctuated up to the present in terms of the fragmented Left and Right, between the rhetorical revolutionary and reactionary extremes and the conservative or timidly reformist realities. The colonial and international role of France is described, stressing Franco-German European Union leadership. The protectionist aversion to competitive global capitalism results in reluctant adaption to forces beyond French control.

Two leading authors challenge the assumption that France has a well coordinated government. The constitutional, political,and policy frameworks of coordination are critically assessed in relation to the central actors and spending ministries, as well as the formal and informal mechanisms of coordination. Four case studies are examined; the European Union, budget, privatization and immigration policy processes. The book concludes with forthright findings on a fragment executive struggling to steer a disparate and partially paralyzed institutional structure. The research findings offer precise cautionary recommendations to policy makers against the dangers of overconfident recourse to 'joined up' government. The findings are relevant, not merely to France, but generally to Western states more generally.

The British study of politics throughout the twentieth century is charted and interpreted for the first time by a team of major scholars brought together on the initiative of the Political Studies section of the British Academy. The authors trace the growing professionalism of political science in the second half of the century, while not neglecting significant contributions to the field by, for example, historians, philosophers, politicians, and journalists. Specialists in the various branches of the discipline provide a critical appraisal of work in areas where British scholarship has been important. Their chapters go beyond disciplinary history to provide interpretations of the interplay between the tumultuous political developments of the century and the framework of analysis for interpreting political life. The distinctive strength of political theory and the history of political thought in British universities is examined, and attention is paid to the influential analyses of liberal democratic and administrative institutions, both comparatively and in Britain, as well as to the study of political parties, interests, elections, and public opinion. The innovative contribution of British authors to analyses of nationalism, totalitarianism and authoritarianism is dissected and an influential British approach to the study of international relations scrutinized. Broad-ranging introductory and concluding chapters provide overviews of the development of Politics as an academic discipline in Britain and assess past trends and future prospects.

It is generally agreed that the new-style presidency is the key institution of the French Fifth Republic in that it helps to ensure the stability and effectiveness of the political system--something that France has been seeking since the Revolution of 1789. Yet, paradoxically, no comprehensive study of the French presidential phenomenon exists. The accumulated experience of 1959-1991, extending over the terms of de Gaulle, Pompidou, Giscard d'Estaing, and Mitterrand, begs a comparative study of their institutional and personal roles in the political process. Among the subjects here considered are: the pre-1958 presidency and the ways in which practice has diverged from constitutional provisions; the president's relations with his staff; the prime minister and government; the political parties; parliament; and the role of the mass media. Finally, the president's special role in foreign and defense policy, as well as his personal projects, are examined. Contributing to the volume are: J. E. S. Hayward, Martin Harrison (University of Keele), Anne Stevens (University of Kent), Jolyon Howarth (University of Bath), Vincent Wright (Nuffield College, Oxford), Jean-Luc Parodi, and Howard Machin (London School of Economics).