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According to received wisdom parties have played a mainly destructive role in French political development. Of questionable legitimacy, pursuing narrow sectarian goals, often corruptly, they have brought about division, weakness and the collapse of regimes. A proper reading of history suggests differently. By combining historical research and contemporary political science theory about party, the author shows that for over a century party has irrigated French democracy in often invisible ways, brokering working compromises between groups divided strongly along social, political and cultural lines. The key to this success is the party system, which allowed for a high degree of collusion and cooptation between political elites, rhetoric notwithstanding. This hidden logic has persisted to this day despite the advent of presidentialism and remains the key to the continuing prosperity of French democracy.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
List of Tables and Figures
Chapter 1. Parties and Party Systems in the Political Development of France
Chapter 2. Party and Representation: Party as Act or Reflector?
Chapter 3. The Third Republic: Matrix of the Modern Party System
Chapter 4. The National Assembly and the Beginnings of a Party System
Chapter 5. The Maturing of the Party System, 1876-1914
Chapter 6. From Comfort to Crisis? The Party System Between the Wars
Chapter 7. The Fourth Republic: The Nadir of Party?
Chapter 8. Humiliation and Recovery: Parties in the Fifth Republic
Chapter 9. Party and Society: A Politics of Partial Accomodation?
Bibliography
Index
About the author
David Hanley is Professor of European Studies at Cardiff University.
