With the French Fifth Republic's Constitution a virtual tour de
force by its founder, de Gaulle, the question was, after the
General, what? Now that de Gaulle's been gone for a while, and the
Fifth Republic is still around, 25 American and French scholars and
writers focus on what kind of shape it's in, and what changes have
occurred over its life-span. Michel Debre, a Gaullist who had a
major role in creating the Constitution, leads off with the view
that the main objective of the Fifth Republic's early years was to
establish the "legitimacy" of the French state and its
institutions: the Presidency, elected by universal suffrage; the
National Assembly, elected separately; and the Government, headed
by a Prime Minister chosen by the President, but based on a
majority of the Assembly. Debre thinks the main job has been done,
though he decries the shift toward an institutionally more powerful
President (none of whom, however, could be more powerful than de
Gaulle was in practice). If "legitimacy" is changed to "stability,"
then the rest of the contributors would agree, though for varying
reasons. William Sconfeld (UC Irvine) takes the position that
Gaullism has survived its period out of power (since the election
of Giscard) and that Chirac's Rassemblement is a Gauliist mass
movement. Peter Gourevitch (UC San Diego), on the other hand,
writes of "Gaullism Abandoned," seeing the Gaullist project as
suitable only under conditions of crisis; the general's heirs,
Gourevitch maintains, have shifted their emphasis from
modernization, under the control of a new elite, to reliance on
traditional elites and preservation of the new status quo.
Similarly, Stephen S. Cohen argues that Gaullism was a creature of
the postwar economic boom and oriented toward modernization, both
of which are over; and so too, he thinks, is Gaullism. But
Gaullism's survival through transformation - or, alternatively, its
demise and replacement - are not the only perceived sources of the
Fifth Republic's continued stability. Mark Kesselman (Columbia),
Frank Wilson, and Georges Lavau all stress the absorption of the
Left into the structure of the Republic, either through its
acceptance of an Oppositional stance or through its fragmentation
into a party satisfied with local power (the Communists) and one
which seeks to succeed Gaullism as a ruling force (the Socialists).
The extent of the existent stability is also captured by Ezra N.
Suleiman (Princeton), who shows that talk about decentralizing
power is just talk: the growing importance of the administrative
elite - Socialists prominent among them - ensures that no actual
reforms will be instituted. As always, there is a fascinating lack
of fit between French rhetoric and practice, so these essays, on
the political structure, are supplemented by others on the economy
and foreign policy - along with a nasty put-down of cultural trends
by French sociologist Michel Crozier. Taken together, this
collection provides a solid, up-to-date summary of the condition of
France's public life. (Kirkus Reviews)
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