French Policymaking Research Articles

The role of a creditor in the making of a debt crisis: the French government's financial support for Poland, between cold war interests and economic constraints, 1958-1981

In spite of considerable attention granted to sovereign debt failures, we still have limited knowledge of the incentives which induced creditors to lend at unsustainable levels. This article looks at the French government’s policy towards Poland from 1958, when economic cooperation between the two countries started, until Poland's announcement in 1981 that it could not service its debt. Export credit guarantees supported France's financial involvement, and this implied the government's strong influence on the decision to lend. This article brings out the tension between economic and political priorities in French policymaking during the cold war. Archival evidence reveals that as early as 1975 the French finance ministry warned that French risks were excessive; that Poland’s growing economic difficulties would render the country unable to repay its debts; and recommended limiting France's financial commitments. The French government, however, decided not only to carry on but also to increase lending, in order to support its political objective of using economic and financial means to relax East–West tensions. This article illustrates how creditors play a part in sovereign debt crises by voluntarily turning a blind eye to a country’s growing inability to repay its debts, and thus reinforce a vicious circle of indebtedness.

Cohabitation and Conflicting Politics in French Policymaking. By Sébastien G. Lazardeux. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 187p. $105 cloth, $100 paper.

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Contesting and re-negotiating the national in French cities: examining policies of governance, Europeanisation and co-option in Marseille and Lyon

The past decade has seen a dynamic and contradictory treatment of difference in French policy-making, both nationally and locally. However, the means by which local difference orientated policies redefine the national is understudied. This article bridges this gap with a case study analysis of Marseille and Lyon to assess and typologize the ways that difference is deployed in local policy to influence, contest and negotiate the discursive performance and construction of the nation. Of particular importance here are modes of municipal governance, the influence of European government and the co-option of local voluntary groups into policy. This article concludes that both Marseille and Lyon provide rich examples of not only how municipalities are increasingly concerned with the notion of difference in policy-making, but also how their policies and engagement with local actors in dealing with nationally salient issues might lead to a redefinition of the national.

Beyond the Balance of Power: France and the Politics of National Security in the Era of the First World War, by Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson Beyond Balance of Power: France and Politics of National Security in Era of First World War Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 559 pp., $110 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-107-03994-0Peter Jackson opens his new book with juxtaposition of Theodore Ruyssen, president of Association de la paix par le droit and Edouard Herriot, Radical party politician, Third and Fourth Republic stalwart, and three times premier of France. The two men, speaking respectively in 1911 and 1924, echoed similar themes. Both stressed need to construct an international order based on rule of law. As Herriot put it, arbitration, security, and disarmament would ensure peaceable international relations and so constitute best means to guarantee French security. Jackson argues such words were not idle, for Herriot's ministry of 1924-1925 embedded what he calls at heart of French security policy (5).Juridical internationalism insisted that France's security was best obtained through exercise of international law and adherence to accepted norms of international behaviour. Juridical internationalism was one of two principal ways of thinking about France's relations with world. For bulk of period that Jackson analyzes, it was, as he admits, lesser. The greater-what Jackson labels traditional view-was bred in bone of French policymakers. This was a preoccupation with realities of power based on French experience in centuries before 1914. French security rested on a combination of alliances, military force, and economic might. What mattered was strategic preponderance (78). For traditionalists, balance of power was at core of French security policy.The central argument of Jackson's book is that scholars, fixated on traditional view, have failed to appreciate existence of internationalist thinking in France during era of First World War. For too long analysis has stopped at acceptance of notion of balance of power as determinant. Consequently, historians have misunderstood not just nature of French security policy but also contributions of French thinking to evolving notions of internationalist thought globally. According to Jackson, appreciating existence of both strands within French thinking recasts scholarly narrative that has dominated assessments of French policy-making. France, having won First World War, was a state that moved steadily toward an exposition of internationalist notions as hope for international relations generally.How is this argument made? Jackson begins with a survey of groups within France that made security policy, namely political elites, foreign policy fonctionnaires, and military. Their collective adherence to traditional view was, if not axiomatic, nearly so, at least before 1914. One of virtues of this work lies in its demonstration that while military remained faithful to traditional view, attitudes of political elites and foreign policy fonctionnaires shifted in favour of internationalist thinking. The latter's influence in France dated to nineteenth century, as Jackson demonstrates in his second chapter, where he traces influence of extra-parliamentary pressure movements, growing links to likeminded associations abroad, and key role of men such as parliamentarian Leon Bourgeois, described as the most influential voice of French juridical for nearly 30 years (65).Although Bourgeois was an apostle of internationalism, it was grim reality of First World War that prompted rethinking. Thus part II of book considers French state at war. In wartime jockeying that existed among politicians, foreign ministry, and military, conflict bestowed loudest voice on military. Yet, as Jackson observes, more far-sighted observers appreciated that world was changing, a point driven home by 1917, when Russian exit from war, coming to power of Bolsheviks, and entrance of United States trumpeted an explicitly internationalist clarion. …

The Political Foundations of Trust and Distrust: Reforms and Protests in France

This article argues that the high level of protest activity in France is, at least partly, the result of distrust between the government and the trade unions, and that such distrust is inevitable in a society where unions are sometimes strong enough to mobilise against the government but not confident in their own future strength. This trust problem can be overcome if governments are willing to make institutional changes that commit them to future policies, but such political engineering is costly and unstable, which explains why governments sometimes prefer open confrontation. The empirical part of the paper analyses four French social and labour market reform initiatives in the 1990s and 2000s, demonstrating that the ideas developed in this article help to explain important features of contemporary French policy-making.

Does Cohabitation Matter? French European Policy-Making in the Context of Divided Government

This article analyses French European policy-making in the context of divided government, arguing that in the area of European policy-making cohabitation increases the number of veto players, as compared with unified government. The increase of veto players, in turn, reduces France's acceptance-sets at the European table and thereby introduces a status quo bias. In order to test this theory, use is made of a comparative case study design. Process-tracing and counterfactual analyses reveal that veto player theory can, indeed, be applied to the interactions of a split-executive government.

Only a Folie de Grandeur? Understanding French policy in Africa

In France’s Fifth Republic, foreign affairs constitute the paramount concern in all policymaking and the horizon reserve (reserved domain) of the president. In other words, French foreign policymaking is concentrated in the hands of just one man, the president. The French president acts like a modern Louis XIV whose famous phrase ‘I am the state’ he can use in his own way: ‘I am the foreign affairs.’

Europe and the Transformation of French Policy-Making: a Cross-Sectoral Approach

This article sheds light on the “Europeanisation” of French policy-making – defined as the national adjustment to European integration – and asks whether different policy domains experience the same kind of pressure to adjust. Four sectors representing different policy types are examined: monetary and budgetary policies, public services, agricultural policy and equal employment. This cross-sectional approach reveals different degrees of change and patterns of adaptation, whilst in no case the EU fully supplanted national decision-making. The authors’ conclusion suggests that regulative and redistributive policies are less conflicting with European integration than distributive policies at the core of the French welfare state, but that the latter are also strongly resilient and resistant to radical changes. Patterns of policy changes are highly complex and diversified, and their “path-dependency” is rooted in the political feasibility of public policy at the domestic level.

A Certain Idea of Europe

A Certain Idea of Europe. By Craig Parsons. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003. 256p. $39.95.This book offers perhaps the most carefully researched analytical study to date of French policymaking in European integration covering most of the post–World War II period. It seeks to show how certain ideas about Europe have shaped the French pursuit of European institutions and, by extension, European outcomes themselves. Ideas, Craig Parsons argues, have provided a measurable “constant cause” fueling the process of European integration. This process, however, was far from linear, as competing ideas battled for dominance in policy discourse and action at all key junctures of integration.

The Politics of Bounded Innovation: 'New' Environmental Policy Instruments in France

French environmental policy-making has been characterised by a 'dual policy style' including both statist and meso-corporatist elements. This style translated into a multiplication of environmental institutions and a wide set of policy instruments, with hypothecated environmental charges and voluntary agreements being used as early as the 1960s and 1970s. From the late 1990s, a second phase of experimentation with 'new' instruments was conducted under the left-wing Jospin government. In particular, an innovative 'pollution tax' (the 'TGAP') sought to redefine the meso-corporatist bargain and reconfigure environmental institutions. However, the main reforms were stalemated by the opposition of economic actors and the electoral defeat of the left in 2002. Thus despite auspicious beginnings, the overall impact of 'new' environmental instruments in France has so far been limited in comparison to other OECD countries. Indeed, 'new' instruments have either been contained within long-standing policy paradigms, or excluded and largely ignored.

The Europeanization of the French polity: continuity, change and adaptation

The Europeanization of France has accelerated reforms of French government and politics, and stiffened resistance to such reforms among public opinion and political elites. This article first evaluates the concept of Europeanization as a factor of change in comparison with other endogenous and exogenous pressures on French governance and public policy-making. It then systematically analyses the changes and reforms undergone in French decision-making and policy-making processes in connection with France's membership of the European Union. Finally, it evaluates the capacity of the current (1999) French political leadership to manage Europeanization in a context of instability in the French polity and in French society. The article contributes to the growing literature concerned with political strategies for the domestic management of European integration.

The Clinton Administration and Africa: A View from Paris, France

The Clinton administration’s foreign policy toward Africa arouses strong reactions in France, most notably within the French policymaking establishment. This sentiment is directly linked to the end of the Cold War and the redistribution of power on the African continent. French policymakers commonly believe that the United States seeks to dominate the African continent. Such a representation could be seen as laughable through its excessive character. It is nonetheless maintained by a disparate group of facts and events that, when combined, lead French policymakers to overestimate U.S. impulses. In fact, U.S. African policies are not immune to the uncertainties and contradictions that pervade overall U.S. foreign policy. As insightfully noted by French Minister of Foreign Affairs Hubert Védrine, U.S. foreign policy toward Africa conveys the aspirations of a “hyper-power” that, although lacking a worthy international opponent truly capable of challenging its power, remains incapable of implementing a viable African strategy—in essence conjuring up the much-acclaimed image in Gulliver’s Travels of the giant Gulliver finding himself hamstrung by hundreds of ropes tied by six-inch Lilliputians. An analysis of this policy also indirectly reveals the doubts inherent in France’s own African policy due to the inability of its leaders to accept the constraints of a transformed international system.

The Decline of Traditional State Dirigisme in France: The Transformation of Political Economic Policies and Policymaking Processes

During the Mitterrand years, successive governments' policies of deregulation and privatization have progressively deprived the state of many of its traditional interventionist instruments. As a result of this, as well as of the internationalization of world trade and the economic integration of Europe, French business has become more independent of the state as well as more interdependent. With these changes in both business and government have come a concomitant transformation in French policymaking processes, such that the traditionally heroic government policies formulated absent business input have been succeeded by more everyday ones, where business for the most part leads and government follows.

Book Review: Conflict and Rhetoric in French Policymaking

Book Review: Conflict and Rhetoric in French Policymaking

Book Reviews

GovernanceVolume 5, Issue 4 p. 508-516 Book Reviews First published: October 1992 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0491.1992.tb00056.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Abstract The Idea Brokers: Think Tanks and the Rise of the New Policy Elite. By JAMES ALLEN SMITH. The Political Failure of Employment Policy 1945–1982. By GARY MUCCIARONI. The Politics of Public Spending in Canada. By DONALD J. SAVOIE. The Organization of Hypocrisy. Talk, Decisions and Actions in Organizations. By NILS BRUNSSON. Conflict and Rhetoric in French Policymaking. By FRANK R. BAUMGARTNER. Affirmative Talk, Affirmative Action: A Comparative Study of the Politics of Affirmative Action. By AUGUSTUS J. JONES, JR. Volume5, Issue4October 1992Pages 508-516 RelatedInformation

Conflict and Rhetoric in French Policymaking.Frank R. Baumgartner

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsConflict and Rhetoric in French Policymaking. Frank R. Baumgartner David WilsfordDavid Wilsford Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Politics Volume 53, Number 2May, 1991 Sponsored by the Southern Political Science Association Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2131789 Views: 2Total views on this site Copyright 1991 University of Texas PressPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Conflict and Rhetoric in French Policymaking. By Frank R. Baumgartner. (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989. Pp. 287. $34.95 cloth.)

Conflict and Rhetoric in French Policymaking. By Frank R. Baumgartner. (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989. Pp. 287. $34.95 cloth.)

Conflict and Rhetoric in French Policymaking. By Frank R. Baumgartner. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989. 287p. $34.95.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

Review: Conflict and Rhetoric in French Policymaking, by Frank R. Baumgartner

Review: <i>Conflict and Rhetoric in French Policymaking</i>, by Frank R. Baumgartner

Conflict and rhetoric in French policymaking

Conflict and rhetoric in French policymaking