The government and politics of France

The Fourth Republic and the Gaullist critique the basis of presidential government - constitutional powers, political instruments and personal agents the functions of the presidency the presidential policy-making sector the "other executive" - prime minister and government under the Fifth Republic the administrative state - foundations, myth and reality the French parliament - constitutional constraints and potential power presidential coalition-building and the transformation of the party system the Right - the politics of co-operation and conflict the Left - the troubled alliance the state and the pressure groups provincial pressures in a Jacobin state public policy making under the Fifth Republic - the constrained polity. Appendices: Regions and departments chronological table of main events from the Revolution to the collapse of the Fourth Republic chronological table of main events from the foundation of the Fifth Republic until the re-election of Mitterrand to the presidency in 1988 presidents and prime ministers of the Fifth Republic results of the referenda of the Fifth Republic results of the presidential elections of April to May 1988 votes for Mitterand at the first and second ballots of the 1988 presidential elections by "department" (percent votes cast) voting behaviour in the April-May 1988 Presidential election.