It is generally agreed that the new-style presidency is the key institution of the French Fifth Republic in that it helps to ensure the stability and effectiveness of the political system--something that France has been seeking since the Revolution of 1789.

Yet, paradoxically, no comprehensive study of the French presidential phenomenon exists. The accumulated experience of 1959-1991, extending over the terms of de Gaulle, Pompidou, Giscard d'Estaing, and Mitterrand, begs a comparative study of their institutional and personal roles in the political process.

Among the subjects here considered are: the pre-1958 presidency and the ways in which practice has diverged from constitutional provisions; the president's relations with his staff; the prime minister and government; the political parties; parliament; and the role of the mass media. Finally, the president's special role in foreign and defense policy, as well as his personal projects, are examined.

Contributing to the volume are: J. E. S. Hayward, Martin Harrison (University of Keele), Anne Stevens (University of Kent), Jolyon Howarth (University of Bath), Vincent Wright (Nuffield College, Oxford), Jean-Luc Parodi, and Howard Machin (London School of Economics).

Out of Slavery, first published in 1985, is a series of articles commissioned on the 150 year anniversary of William Wilberforce’s death and the Act of Parliament abolishing British slavery in 1833. With the background from which the history of slavery was viewed being radically changed, with decolonisation, the advancement of Human Rights, the economic and social consequences of what was done, and left undone, by the Abolitionists and Emancipators and of the situations which they faced. This book offers a broad reappraisal on slavery and freedom from slavery as they can now be seen, and of the contribution and personality of the Abolitionists, particularly of their leader and spokesman William Wilberforce.

Out of Slavery, first published in 1985, is a series of articles commissioned on the 150 year anniversary of William Wilberforce's death and the Act of Parliament abolishing British slavery in 1833. With the background from which the history of slavery was viewed being radically changed, with decolonisation, the advancement of Human Rights, the economic and social consequences of what was done, and left undone, by the Abolitionists and Emancipators and of the situations which they faced. This book offers a broad reappraisal on slavery and freedom from slavery as they can now be seen, and of the contribution and personality of the Abolitionists, particularly of their leader and spokesman William Wilberforce.

A-state-of-the-art and comprehensive survey covering all aspects of politics in Western Europe. The volume brings together the very best scholars in the field from the UK, continental Europe and North America.

National champions are firms promoted by governments to defend the national interest in the international market. This book looks at how European national champions have fared under the pressure of European integration and in an increasingly competitive world economy.

The early 1990s witnessed a wave of populist disaffection from their representative elites, who came to be regarded as promoting an agenda of European integration that did not attach sufficient importance to the general public's concerns. The 1994 European Elections focused public attention on this crisis and the 16 contributors to this symposium critically assess the diagnosis of the ailment and the solutions that have been canvassed to remedy its causes and consequences.

The early 1990s witnessed a wave of populist disaffection from their representative elites, who came to be regarded as promoting an agenda of European integration that did not attach sufficient importance to the general public's concerns. The 1994 European Elections focused public attention on this crisis and the 16 contributors to this symposium critically assess the diagnosis of the ailment and the solutions that have been canvassed to remedy its causes and consequences.

A-state-of-the-art and comprehensive survey covering all aspects of politics in Western Europe. The volume brings together the very best scholars in the field from the UK, continental Europe and North America.

In the 1990s there has been an increasingly widespread sense that the governing elites are losing touch with their peoples. leaders are no longer able to count upon the acquiescence of their citizens to which they were accustomed. The disenchantment has resulted in the loss of public support for the political institutions of both the individual European nation states and of the European Union.
Taking elitism and populism as the opposite poles between which the political leaders need to steer, the contributors successively consider why there appears to have been a degeneration in the quality of elite leaders, with civil societies turning against their governments and the elite mediators between the powerless and the powerful. The agenda-setting role of the media, the rival appeals to representation and referendum, the problems encountered by political parties and organised interests, and the tensions between public demand and economic constraints are all discussed. The chapters suggest that the need to lead from the front rather than from behind remains indispensable in elitist democracies.

It is generally agreed that the new-style presidency is the key institution of the French Fifth Republic in that it helps to ensure the stability and effectiveness of the political system--something that France has been seeking since the Revolution of 1789.

Yet, paradoxically, no comprehensive study of the French presidential phenomenon exists. The accumulated experience of 1959-1991, extending over the terms of de Gaulle, Pompidou, Giscard d'Estaing, and Mitterrand, begs a comparative study of their institutional and personal roles in the political process.

Among the subjects here considered are: the pre-1958 presidency and the ways in which practice has diverged from constitutional provisions; the president's relations with his staff; the prime minister and government; the political parties; parliament; and the role of the mass media. Finally, the president's special role in foreign and defense policy, as well as his personal projects, are examined.

Contributing to the volume are: J. E. S. Hayward, Martin Harrison (University of Keele), Anne Stevens (University of Kent), Jolyon Howarth (University of Bath), Vincent Wright (Nuffield College, Oxford), Jean-Luc Parodi, and Howard Machin (London School of Economics).

From its antecedents in the 1950s, successive forms of European integration were intended to be leaderless. They have succeeded only too well in demonstrating that much can be achieved without sustained leadership. The attachment to national sovereignty of most of the European elites and mass populations has meant that confederalism has been implicitly accepted for the foreseeable future. This book attempts to clarify three clusters of issues. First, as European integration has advanced, who has provided the impetus? Particular insiders have episodically exerted decisive innovative influence, despite the need to conciliate the jealous champions of national sovereignty. Three case studies are offered: economic and monetary policy, environmental policy and technology policy. The second part examines why the European Union is currently leaderless. The weakened Commission and the increasingly assertive European Council and Council of Ministers have contended for control of agenda-setting but it is in the sphere of foreign and security policy that the EU's logic of leaderlessness has been most conspicuous. Finally, reduced capacity of the Franco-German tandem to offer acceptable leadership and British incapacity to join or replace them in providing overall leadership is also discussed.

For a thousand years France has struggled to impose unity upon its diverse components. For most of the time its leaders have sought to define its identity by opposition to the 'Anglo-Saxons': first England, then Britain and the USA. The prologue explores France's self-image by contrast with the Anglo-American counter-identity.
Part one deals with the unfinished Revolution from 1789 to 1878 when the Third Republic achieved relative stability. After examining the variety of symbolic representatives of Frenchness in the search for democratic legitimacy and national unanimity, the enduring divisions in French society are explained in their ideological, social, religious, territorial and political aspects. Emphasis is given to the role of writers and intellectuals in expressing these cleavages before analyzing how parliamentary democracy was established by the Third Republic.
Part two starts by relating French political paralysis to the slowness of socio-economic modernization before turning to the polarizing role of intellectuals in perpetuating varieties of Left and Right battles over who personified anti-France. The adversarial character of French party politics is then considered as it fluctuated up to the present in terms of the fragmented Left and Right, between the rhetorical revolutionary and reactionary extremes and the conservative or timidly reformist realities. The colonial and international role of France is described, stressing Franco-German European Union leadership. The protectionist aversion to competitive global capitalism results in reluctant adaption to forces beyond French control.

The distinctive strength of political science in Britain is revealed in this indispensable guide to modern British scholarship in the field. As well as charting the development of the discipline, the essays examine the innovative contributions to the study of nationalism, totalitarianism and authoritarianism and the influential British approach to international relations. The fourteen distinguished authors have provided a major contribution to our understanding of the contemporary state of political science.

The theme of this collection of essays is the interrelationship between planning conceived as a technique of public economic policy-making and the working of political and administrative institutions in three West European states after the early 1960s. The emphasis is on the impact of the attempts to plan upon political and administrative relationships at national and regional levels and the constraints that they in turn imposed upon planning. An overall judgement is made on the aptitudes of the three countries for planning and on the implications for contemporary capitalism within liberal democracies.

Two leading authors challenge the assumption that France has a well-coordinated government. The constitutional, political,and policy frameworks of coordination are critically assessed in relation to the central actors and the spending ministries, as well as the formal and informal mechanisms of coordination.