Abstract
France has a complex political party system, which many view as symptomatic of disorder and confusion. At any given time—especially during elections—it is possible to distinguish more than a dozen parties. Some of these can be traced back several generations and have been of national importance; others are of passing interest because of their ephemeral or purely local nature or weak organization; and still others are mere political clubs, composed of small clusters of intellectuals more anxious to have a forum for expressing their political views than to achieve power.
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Notes
The Poujadists were supporters of the Union for the Defense of Shopkeepers and Artisans, an interest group established during the Fourth Republic to protect elements of the petite bourgeoisie against the vicissitudes of rapid economic modernization. Led by Pierre Poujade, it ran in the parliamentary elections of 1956 under the label of Union et Fraternité Française, combining hostility to industrialism with antiparliamentarism and anti-Semitism.
As of 1987, the membership of the various parties was estimated as follows: RPR, 800,000; PC, 600,000 according to some sources, 100,000 (dues-paying members) according to others; PS, 200,000–250,000; MRG, 22,000; National Front, 70,000; UDF, 300,000 (of which Republican Party, 60,000; Radical-Socialists, 60,000; and CDS, 50,000). These figures are approximate and based on a number of (often conflicting) sources. Typical annual membership dues are about $30. In the past few years all political parties have lost dues-paying members; it is estimated that in 1993, after its electoral defeat (see below) the PS had no more than 100,000 members, and the PC even fewer.
On these cleavages, see Pascal Perrineau, “Les cadres du Parti socialiste,” in SOFRES, L’État de l’Opinion1991, ed. Olivier Duhamel and Jérôme Jaffré (Paris: Seuil, 1991).
Jean-Pierre Soisson, “Les grands mots,” Le Point, 13 July 1991, 16.
Alain Rollat, “M. Leroy se réfère au communisme ... balsacien!” Le Monde, 25 September 1990.
See “Les propositions des candidats,” Le Monde, 6 May 1995, 10.
News from France, 12 May 1995, 1.
Le Monde, Dossiers et Documents, 1995, 47.
Ibid., 72.
Specifically, the electorate voted for Chirac because they had confidence that he would address himself seriously to the following themes, in descending order: unemployment, the construction of Europe, immigration, and the fight against social exclusion. Thomas Ferenczi, “Les Français attendent de M. Chirac qu’il mette en œuvre le changement,” Le Monde, 11 May 1995, 9.
On the steep decline of union membership, see Dominique Labbé and Maurice Croisat, La Fin des Syndicats? (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1992).
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© 1998 Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Hancock, M.D., Conradt, D.P., Peters, B.G., Safran, W., Zariski, R. (1998). Who Has the Power and How Did They Get It?. In: Politics in Western Europe. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-14555-3_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-14555-3_8
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