1958: The Gaullist Settlement and French Politics

  • John Gaffney
Chapter
Part of the French Politics, Society and Culture Series book series (FPSC)

Abstract

De Gaulle’s new Republic had two essential characteristics: the centrality of the personal, and the emergence of complexity. First, it introduced into the new configuration of political institutions the primacy of the President and all that flows from this as regards personal power, executive authority and decision making and its relation to public policy and the influence of the political parties. In so doing, it increased the significance of the interplay of the personal and the institutional. This is why strictly constitutional or institutional approaches to the Fifth Republic are inadequate, for what de Gaulle did was to add as a permanent and complex feature of the Republic the influence of the personal within the institutional. And the personal is not just personal, but cultural and relational, as we shall see. Beyond giving the President political primacy and importance within a given protocol, de Gaulle brought a dramatic but marginal political style and set of relations within republicanism into the heart of its institutions thereby transforming it.

Keywords

Prime Minister Political Leadership Press Conference Political Parti Military Coup 
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Notes

  1. 1.
    For a detailed discussion of the growth and influence of the press, radio and television, see J.K. Chalaby (2002) The de Gaulle Presidency and the Media (Basingstoke: Palgrave).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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    Opinion is usually taken to mean opinion as measured through opinion polling and often brought together in annual appraisals such as SOFRES’ L’Etat de I’opinion published yearly (Paris: Seuil), in SOFRES and IFOP polls and the quarterly publication Sondages: Revue française de I’opinion publique (Paris: Chancelier), or in the Figaro Baromètre devoted to the popularity of politicians. It is clear that we use the term much more widely to refer to the views, perceived views, imaginings (and forgettings) of individuals aggregated by polling organizations as well as other collective political or social actors. See J. Charlot (ed.) (1971) Les Français et de Gaulle (Paris: Plon).Google Scholar
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  4. 3.
    We do not wish to choose one definition of culture out of the hundreds of definitions and approaches. We shall use the term here to designate the formative and shared ensemble of traditions, attitudes, values, symbols, memories and dispositions that inform a national community. For a discussion of the topic and its application, see J. Gaffney and E. Kolinsky (eds) (1991) Political Culture in France and Germany (London: Routledge).Google Scholar
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    For two extremely interesting discussions of de Gaulle’s relationship to France’s political culture see B. Gaïti (1998) De Gaulle, prophète de la cinquième république (Paris: Presses de Sciences Po)Google Scholar
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    For an interesting discussion of this see W.G. Andrews (1982) Presidential Government in Gaullist France (Albany: Suny Press).Google Scholar
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  50. G. Mollet (1973) 15 ans après. La constitution de 1958 (Paris: Albin Michel).Google Scholar
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    See J.-J. Becker (1988) Histoire politique de la France depuis 1945 (Paris: Armand Colin), p.81.Google Scholar
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    R. Rémond (1983) 1958: Le retour de de Gaulle (Brussels: Complexe), pp.131–133.Google Scholar
  53. 32.
    J. Chapsal and A. Lancelot (1975) La vie politique en France depuis 1940 (Paris: Presses universitaires de France), p.348.Google Scholar
  54. 33.
    See S. Berstein (1989) La France de l’expansion (Paris: Seuil), p.41.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© John Gaffney 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  • John Gaffney
    • 1
  1. 1.Aston UniversityBirminghamUK

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