The Fifth French Republic is a study of modern French politics and history, discussing the five presidents who span from 1959 to the present--Charles de Gaulle, Georges Pompidou, Valry Giscard d'Estang, Francois Mitterand and Jacques Chirac. Philip Thody examines the importance of the similarities between the five men for an understanding of the general and political culture of France; the similarities and differences in the foreign policies pursued by the five presidents, including anti-Americanism; France's role in the European Union and her attitude to the Cold War; French domestic policies and administrative practices, attempts to decentralize the state, the role of the French civil service, the problem of immigration and the rise of the National Front.

In the French Republic political leadership is normally provided by the presidency, albeit from a very narrow constitutional base. This volume examines the strengths and weaknesses of that leadership as well as the way that executive power has been established in the republican context.

The Republic of De Gaulle offers a comprehensive account - the fullest yet available in English - of the eleven years that followed the establishment of the Fifth Republic in 1958. Serge Berstein analyses the new constitutional and political system that emerged under De Gaulle, and shows how France was able to disengage from the ruinous Algerian War. He then conducts a detailed analysis of the socio-economic changes wrought during this period, and discusses the aims of De Gaulle's highly individualistic foreign policy. In the final section Professor Berstein traces the decline of De Gaulle's ascendancy up to his eventual resignation in 1969. In conclusion the author assesses the contribution of a remarkable political leader to the not less remarkable changes that took place in France during his presidency. This volume, lucidly translated by Peter Morris, features all those student aids now associated with the series.

Addresses essential questions about the determinants and dynamics of the French political system and of its institutions, dispelling the stereotypical view of it as an exceptional model of politics.

This text provides an overview of political parties in France. The social and ideological profiles of all the major parties are analysed, highlighting their principal functions and dynamics within the system. This examination is complemented by analyses of bloc and system features.

In this definitive history, William R. Keylor traces the tumultuous relationship between Charles de Gaulle and a host of other key twentieth-century figures: his former mentor Marshal Philippe Pétain, who headed the collaborationist government in the southern French city of Vichy as the German army occupied the northern two-thirds of the country; Sir Winston Churchill, the British prime minister whose government supported and financed de Gaulle and the Free French, but who clashed with the French leader on a number of hot-button issues; and, most critically, the six American presidents from FDR to Nixon. Keylor uses the metaphor “thorn in the side” to emphasize the fact that challenges from the intrepid French leader were often an annoyance to the Americans, who all had many more important issues to deal with—World War II for Roosevelt and Truman, the Cold War for Eisenhower, and the Vietnam War for Kennedy and Johnson. Richard Nixon alone had an excellent relationship, but the two men overlapped for only four months before de Gaulle’s retirement. Thoroughly researched and deeply knowledgeable, this gripping book will appeal to all readers interested in contemporary French and US history.

The French Revolution, politics and the modern nation -- French and the civilizing mission -- Paris and magnetic appeal -- France stirs up the melting pot -- France hurtles into the future.

Citizenship in a Republic is the title of a speech given by Theodore Roosevelt, former President of the United States, at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, on April 23, 1910. One notable passage from the speech is referred to as "The Man in the Arena": It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

How have the American presidency, the British premiership and the German chancellorship changed over the last half-century? Has there been convergence or divergence in the development of political leadership in the United States and in the two largest democracies of Western Europe? And what difference can individual leaders make in an ever-more complex political environment? Presidents, Prime Ministers and Chancellors addresses these questions by looking at the leadership performance of more than two dozen American presidents, British prime ministers and German chancellors of the post-1945 period. In so doing, it offers a unique perspective on the nature of executive leadership in Western democracies that takes into account both the international and the historical dimension of comparison.

After the collapse of communism, some thirty countries scrambled to craft democratic constitutions. Surprisingly, the constitutional model they most often chose was neither the pure parliamentary model found in most of Western Europe at the time, nor the presidential model of the Americas. Rather, it was semi-presidentialism--a rare model known more generally as the "French type." This constitutional model melded elements of pure presidentialism with those of pure parliamentarism. Specifically, semi-presidentialism combined a popularly elected head of state with a head of government responsible to a legislature. Borrowing Constitutional Designs questions the hasty adoption of semi-presidentialism by new democracies. Drawing on rich case studies of two of the most important countries for European politics in the twentieth century--Weimar Germany and the French Fifth Republic--Cindy Skach offers the first theoretically focused, and historically grounded, analysis of semi-presidentialism and democracy. She demonstrates that constitutional choice matters, because under certain conditions, semi-presidentialism structures incentives that make democratic consolidation difficult or that actually contribute to democratic collapse. She offers a new theory of constitutional design, integrating insights from law and the social sciences. In doing so, Skach challenges both democratic theory and democratic practice. This book will be welcomed not only by scholars and practitioners of constitutional law but also by those in fields such as comparative politics, European politics and history, and international and public affairs.