French Political Institutions Research Articles

Prevajanje lastnih imen v publicističnih besedilih: prevodi poimenovanj francoskih političnih institucij v slovenščino

Pričujoči članek se ukvarja s prevajanjem lastnih imen iz francoščine v slovenščino; natančneje, s prevodi publicističnih poimenovanj francoskih političnih institucij v slovenščino. Najprej predstavimo lastna imena v slovenščini in francoščini ter relevantne razlike pri njihovem zapisovanju v obeh jezikih; nato pa omenimo še nekatere prevajalske strategije. Sledi korpusna analiza v dveh delih. Najprej smo analizirali publicistični podkorpus vzporednega korpusa FraSloK in nato še slovenski korpus Gigafida, kjer smo analizirali članke dveh slovenskih časopisov Delo in Dnevnik. Pri analizi smo se osredotočili na strategije, ki so jih pri prevajanju uporabili prevajalci. Poimenovanja v obeh slovenskih časopisih se med seboj razlikujejo in so odvisna od pričakovanega ciljnega občinstva. Pri poimenovanjih v prevedenih člankih smo pričakovali pogosto uporabo transference, vendar so ta pogosto prevedena v slovenščino ali pa opremljena z razlago, ki je v pomoč bralcem. Rezultati analize potrjujejo, da prav ciljno občinstvo in kontekst odločata o izbiri prevajalske strategije ter kažejo na prevajalčevo težnjo po dodatni razlagi pojmov.

The French politics of retrenchment (2007–2012): Institutions and blame avoidance strategies

While the semi-presidential French regime and the reinforcement of ‘presidentialization’ under Nicolas Sarkozy have often been associated with the idea of disruptive and heroic changes, France’s post-crisis budgetary policy appeared strongly embedded in the previous commitments made by President Sarkozy and relied largely on measures of a gradual and low-profile nature without significant U-turns. In order to explain this result, the article emphasizes the effects of French institutions on government capabilities and on the potential allocation of blame and the related political strategies connected with the electoral cycle and timing. In addition, it also explores the specific characteristics of the French national crisis and its perceptions by top bureaucrats, as well as the nature of the external macro-constraints that influenced French budgetary policy, whether originating with markets, international organizations or the European Union.Points for practitionersThis article emphasizes the importance of institutions and political strategies in cutback management. The main argument is that budget reduction policies are embedded in political and electoral constraints that strongly affect their design and choices. The article provides many empirical elements about the specific characteristics of the French national crisis and how French governments reacted to the 2008 crisis. It puts emphasis on the specificities of French political institutions and the strong exposure to blame. The French political strategies of blame avoidance are described between 2008 and 2012, as well as the nature of the external macro-constraints that influenced French budgetary policy, whether originating with markets, international organizations or the European Union.

Model ustrojowy V Republiki Francuskiej a system rządów w Federacji Rosyjskiej

The study presents the issues of a semi-presidential political system which can be distinguished in a few European countries. First, the autor presents the 5th Republic in France which is undoubtedly a model of his political system. There is the description of the structure of the main state authorities and the relations between them. The autor indicates the constitutional status and the decisive role of the president of the republic as the most important feature of the French semi-presidential political system. The attention is also paid to the parliament with the emphasis on these legal and political solutions which lead to the restriction of the legislative status. The paper also includes the issues concerning political position and importance of the government as well as the scope of its responsibility before the parliament and before the president of the republic. After the presentation of the political system of the 5th Republic, the autor attempts to show if and to what extent the present French political institutions are reflected in the political system of the Russian Federation. Therefore, he presents the regulations in the legally binding Russian constitution of 1993 and characterises the political status of the highest state authorities in the Russian Federation: the president, the government and the parliament. The author mainly emphasises these legal regulations which are similar to the political solutions used in the semi-presidential political system of the 5th Republic.

Évaluation des politiques publiques et quantification en France : des relations ambiguës et contradictoires entre disciplines

Résumé Le recours à la mesure et à la quantification des politiques et des activités administratives est ancien, et associé parfois à une forme de « reddition des comptes » par les administrateurs. L’évaluation des politiques publiques (EPP) est nettement plus récente et, en France elle peine à trouver une place légitime. Cela tient à la fois à l’histoire des institutions politiques dans ce pays, mais aussi aux relations que l’évaluation entretient avec les trois disciplines (économie, science politique et sociologie) qui la nourrissent. Nous montrons que les rapports sont plus ou moins directs, souvent ambigus et stratégiques.

Agenda-setting dynamics in France: Revisiting the ‘partisan hypothesis’

This paper presents an original way of testing the ‘partisan hypothesis’. Building on the substantial literature on the party-policy link, we test this link with respect to issue attention, rather than spending or macroeconomic outcomes. We examine the evolution of issue attention through the systematic analysis of agenda setting of three major French political institutions: the President, the government and the National Assembly. Although our results point to partisan differentiation on some issues, the overall conclusion is that partisan differentiation is at best one factor of variation among others.

The State and the Left in modern France

French historians have recently begun to pursue the history of left-wing politics in a manner which suggests that the Marxist frame of reference has begun to disappear, even in this field of history. The eminent historian and public intellectual Pierre Rosanvallon is leading the way in the field of political and intellectual history, through his sustained examination of the State and the ongoing debate about French democracy. The connection between history and current political discourse is important, and it is significant that historians are attempting to revise common perceptions of the evolution of French political institutions. Wide areas of new research have been opened out and this article hopes to offer some reflections on how these new approaches to French political history may be used in future research.

Political institutions under stress? Assessing the impact of European integration on French political institutions

This article examines the impact of European integration on French political institutions. In particular, it assesses the way in which the scrutiny of European affairs has affected and changed relations between the legislative and the executive. Contrary to previous work, we show that simple principal–agent models are difficult to apply to the French case, provided there are two directly elected institutions. Together with the relatively low salience of European issues in French public opinion, this explains why the scrutiny of European affairs has not given way to any substantial renegotiation of legislative–executive relations in France. The overall weakness of the French Parliament has finally been demonstrated with regard to European affairs, despite a substantial formal increase in powers of scrutiny since the Maastricht Treaty.

“Planting the Tricolor in the Citadels of Communism”: Women's Social Action in the Croix de feu and Parti social français

The Croix de feu and its successor, the Parti social francais (PSF), were, in terms of membership, the most important political organizations seen in France before the Fourth Republic. In June 1936 the Croix de feu had around 400,000 members, and the PSF may have attracted as many as 1 million participants. The Croix de feu had been founded in 1928 with the intention of bringing together veterans who had been decorated for bravery during the Great War. In the following years, the movement’s field of recruitment was expanded through the creation of a number of linked organizations. The “Briscards” was set up in 1929 for those who had spent at least six months in the trenches; the Volontaires nationaux (VN) was added in 1933 for males too young to have experienced active service; and the Regroupement national autour des Croix de feu (RNCF) was established in the same year for older nonveteran men and women. It was the riots of February 6, 1934, in the course of which demonstrators of the extreme right had attempted to force their way into the Chamber of Deputies, that brought the Croix de feu to the attention of the public at large. The league’s behavior on that day had been somewhat equivocal, for it had seemingly refused to take advantage of a golden opportunity to break through police barriers and enter the Chamber. But uncertainty as to the league’s attitude toward parliamentary institutions did not prevent rapid expansion of membership in the course of 1934. Recruitment was given a further boost by the collapse of the right-wing government of Gaston Doumergue in November, which convinced many that reform of French political institutions depended on new forms of action. The Croix de feu refused to take part in elections and sought instead to convince respectable opinion through its notorious paramilitary mobilizations that it alone was equipped to deal with the threat of commu-

Class, Corruption, and Politics in the French Chamber of Deputies, 1846-1848

Whether it is to be considered in the narrow context of the reign of Louis-Philippe or the broader one of the history of French political institutions, the parliamentarianism of the July Monarchy is an important phenomenon. In a recent article, Charles Pouthas has demonstrated numerically the importance of the lower chamber in the political life of the period.' He finds, for example, that from 1830 to 1848 the proportion of ministers who were or had been deputies when they obtained their portfolios was more than twice what it had been during the Restoration; and in 1846 all seven of the nonmilitary members of the cabinet had received mandates to the lower house.2

The Renovation That Failed: Mendès-France and the Radical Party

Y MAY, 1958, there was virtual unanimity in France and elsewhere concerning the need to modify, perhaps drastically, the Constitution of the Fourth Republic. The insurrection in Algiers brought General de Gaulle to power in circumstances requiring both a solution to the Algerian problem and a renovation of French political institutions. Pierre Mend s-France, throughout the short life of the Fourth Republic and especially after the termination of his brief period of service as premier, devoted himself to these twin problems. Unlike De Gaulle, he made no frontal attack on the political system with its multiplicity of parties. The Third and Fourth Republics, for him, were the Republic, constituting a tradition of parliamentary democracy worthy of preservation. What was needed was a renovation of the existing system in order to resolve the major problems of economic reconstruction and the recasting of the links between France and her overseas possessions. Cabinet instability was the characteristic vice, but if it were to be reduced and more affirmative government to develop, the place to begin was not the formal constitution but the structure, the appeal, the representation, and the co-ordination of the larger political parties, especially those of the non-Communist Left who traditionally were the defenders of the Republic and who were the most likely sources of a reformist policy capable of constructive action at home and overseas.

IV. Constitutional Development in Latin America: A Synthesis

“Do not give to a people institutions for which it is unripe in the simple faith that the tool will give skill to the workman's hand. Respect Facts. Man is in each country not what we may wish him to be, but what Nature and History have made him.” Bryce, Modern Democracies, I, 206.With minor exceptions, the panorama of constitutional growth in the Western Hemisphere reveals two main streams. The United States Constitution, the British North America Act of 1867 (which is the Canadian fundamental law), and the organic laws of the various New World British possessions of today all stem, obviously, from English constitutional and institutional ancestry. The constitutions of the twenty Latin American states, on the other hand, all reflect in varying degree the experience and institutions of their three mother countries. These modern constitutions are, it is true, influenced by alien examples at one point or another, but the core is undubitably Latin. More narrowly, the inspiration is Hispanic; and still more narrowly, Spanish.It is not easy to explain in detail the degree of similarity between French political institutions and those of the Iberian peninsula in the centuries between the emergence of the several national states and the political revolutions in Latin America. At least, the French belonged to a not unrelated family. A much closer relationship is easily discernible among the political institutions of the three main Iberian entities that ultimately became the national states of Spain and Portugal, viz., Castile, Aragon, and Portugal. It is often forgotten that for many generations no political or constitutional “Spain” existed, that Aragon and Castile were as distinct from each other in most ways as either of them was from Portugal, that an easily possible union of the ruling houses of Castile and Portugal—supplanting the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand—might have changed the whole subsequent course of history.