The Innovations

Abstract

The 2012 election in France occurred under inauspicious circumstances: the Socialists were widely expected to win, but their front-runner, head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was eliminated from contention due to sexual indiscretions. The mantle of candidate fell to the unprepossessing François Hollande, who was aware of a growing crisis in the French political system, characterized by increasing alienation of the voters from the political class that governs them. Hollande rode to the top in the context of efforts by the Socialist party to address that crisis: on the one hand the Socialist party endorsed parity for women and greatly increased their participation in the party, and on the other hand it adopted and expanded the primary system, coming into vogue among many political parties in Europe and Israel. However, these were not sufficient to alleviate the political crisis which is rather driven by divisions in the electorate that transcend the parties, including European unity and globalization.KeywordsPresidential ElectionPrimary SystemFemale CandidateEuropean ConstitutionSocialist PartyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.