French Socialist Party Research Articles

Discursive Hierarchies and the Construction of Crisis in the News: A Case Study

An extensive analysis of US news coverage of the French Socialist Party victories in regular elections in 1981 shows how US news media constructed a discourse of crisis. A hierarchy of discourses is identified, as are the mechanisms of nomination and exclusion, paradox and appropriation through which the discourse of crisis became dominant. Specifically, the crises for the French people and for the American government are created through a continued appropriation of the voice of the voters, who are never allowed to speak for themselves, and the construction of the French Left as inherently paradoxical. The paradoxes of depoliticized politics and non-ideological votes for the Socialists functioned to explain away the contradictions between an appropriated discourse of the people and their actions.

Review. The French Socialist Party: The Emergence of a Party of Government. Bell, D. S. and Byron Criddle (eds)

Review. The French Socialist Party: The Emergence of a Party of Government. Bell, D. S. and Byron Criddle (eds)

REVIEWS

REVIEWS The French Socialist Party: The Emergence of a Party of Government. 2nd Edition. By D. S. BELL and BYRON CRIDDLE. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988. 329pp. JOHN FREARS JOHN FREARS LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar French Studies, Volume XLV, Issue 1, January 1991, Pages 115-a–115, https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/XLV.1.115-a Published: 01 January 1991

Constancy of Legislative Perceptions of Constituency Opinion

This article develops the dynamic implications of the Miller-Stokes model of constituency representation by exploring the extent to which there was constancy between two “generations” of French Socialist party candidates for the National Assembly from the same constituencies, in their perceptions of the opinions of their constituents. The data derive from personal interviews conducted with the candidates shortly after the legislative elections of 1967 and 1978. The phenomena discussed include the relationship between constancy of candidate perceptions and accuracy of candidate perceptions. The authors also examine the extent to which the candidates base their perceptions of district opinion on the political composition of their constituencies. That practice has daunting implications both for the comparative study of representation and for the representative process itself.

Le parti socialiste français n'existe pas

Duc-Quercy, The French Socialist Party Does Not Exist Today, in the French Socialist Party there is a contradiction between the different levels of organization. The Party is completely dominated by a group logic which, centered around a leader with presidential ambitions, is totally preoccupied with the task of securing his electoral victory. Functionning in osmosis with the highest state administration, the Socialist Party is progressively losing its character as a populist, left-wing party.

Social movements and party systems: The French socialist party and new social movements

This article examines the apparent difficulty of various French ‘new social movements’ of the 1970s and 1980s to coalesce in the form of a ‘green’ or ‘new politics’ party. In addition to the nature of the French electoral system and dominant policy‐making apparatus, this article focuses upon relations between the Socialist Party and feminist and ecology movements. The major argument is that the Socialists, in their bid for hegemony among the left throughout the 1970s and 1980s, effectively undercut post‐material value‐oriented support for a ‘new politics’ party.

Book reviews

Delivering Public Services in Western Europe: Sharing Western European Experience of Para‐Government Organisation. Edited by C. Hood and G.F. Schuppert, London: Sage, 1987. Pp.xii + 268. £25.00 (hardback). Local Authorities and New Technology: The European Dimension. Edited By Kenneth Dyson. London: Croom Helm, 1988. Pp.175. £25.00 (hardback). Managing Public Organisations: Lessons from Contemporary European Experience. Edited by Jan Kooiman and Kjell A. Eliassen. London: Sage Publications Limited, 1987. Pp.261. £25.00 (hardback). Business Interests, Organisational Developments and Private Interest Government: An International Comparative Study of the Food Processing Industry. Edited by Wyn Grant. (European University Institute, Series C [Political and Social Sciences] 8). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1987. Pp.viii + 232. DM93 (hardback). The Politicisation of Business. Edited by M.C.P.M. Van Schendelen and R.J. Jackson. New York: Croom Helm, 1987. Pp.185. £27.50 (hardback). Improving Public Management. By L. Metcalfe and S. Richards. London: Sage Publications, 1987. Pp.x + 243. £19.95 (hardback). The Growth and Efficiency of Public Spending. By M.S. Levitt and M.A.S. Joyce. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Pp.xi + 201. £22.50 (hardback). The State and the City. By Ted Robert Gurr and Desmond S. King. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education, 1987. Pp.x + 242. £25.00 (hardback), £7.95 (paperback). Local Government Finance: International Perspectives. Edited by Ronan Paddison and Stephen Bailey. London: Routledge, 1988. Pp.iv + 267. £30.00 Central and Local Relations: A Comparative Analysis of West European Unitary States. Edited by Edward C. Page and Michael J. Goldsmith. London: Sage Publications, 1987. Pp. viii + 180. £25.00. Beyond Westminster and Whitehall: the Sub‐Central Governments of Britain. By R.A.W. Rhodes. London: Unwin Hyman, 1988. Pp.xx + 459. £40.00 (hardback), £14.95 (paperback). Western European Adjustment to Structural Economic Problems. By Marie‐Josée Drouin, Maurice Ernst and Jimmy W. Wheeler. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America for the Hudson Institute, 1987. Pp.xxii + 259. $14.75 Political Stability and Neo‐Corporatism: Corporatist Integration and Societal Cleavages in Western Europe. Edited by Ilja Scholten. London: Sage, 1987. Pp.276. £27.50; £10.95 (paperback). The Politics Of Deindustrialisation: The Contraction Of The West European Shipbuilding Industry. By Bo Strath. Beckenham: Croom Helm, 1987. Pp.295. £27.50 Political Parties: Electoral Change and Structural Response. Edited by Alan Ware. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987 Pp.281. £25.00 (hardback); £8.95 (paperback). World Atlas of Elections: Voting Patterns in 39 Democracies. By Dick Leonard and Richard Natkiel. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1987. Pp.176. £45.00 (hardback). Citizens, Parties and the State. By Alan Ware. Oxford: Polity Press, 1988. Pp.282. £25.00. Social Class In Modem Britain. By Gordon Marshall, Howard Newby, David Rose and Carolyn Vogler. London: Hutchinson, 1988. Pp.xv + 314. £25.00 (hardback). The Economist Pocket Guide to the European Community. By Dick Leonard. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988. Pp.xiii + 210. £15.00. European Political Cooperation. Towards a Framework of Supranational Diplomacy? By Panayiotis Ifestos. Aldershot: Avebury (Gower Publishing), 1987. Pp.xxiii + 635. £35.00. Customs Unions and Trade Conflicts. The Enlargement of the European Community. By G.N. Yannopoulos. London: Routledge, 1988. Pp.184. £25.00. Aspects of European Integration ‐ A View of the European Community and the Nordic Countries. By Preben Almdal. Odense University Press 1986. Pp.108. Approaching the Channel Tunnel. Edited by Clive H. Church. University Association for Contemporary European Studies, 1987. Pp.76. £3.00. The British Government and the European Community since 1984. By Stephen George. University Association for Contemporary European Studies, 1987. Pp.75. £1.80. The Politics of Steel: Western Europe and the Steel Industry in the Crisis Years (1974–1984). Edited by Yves Meny and Vincent Wright. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter and Co. 1987. Pp.811. DM298. A Nation Dividing?: The Electoral Map of Great Britain 1979–87. By R.J. Johnston, C.J. Pattie and J.G. Allsopp. London and New York: Longman/Wiley, 1988. Pp.379 + xiv. £9.95 The House of Lords. By Donald Shell. Deddington, Oxford: Philip Allan, 1988. Pp.231. £34.50 (hardback), £14.95 (paperback). The French Socialist Party: The Emergence of a Party of Government. By D.S. Bell and Byron Criddle. Oxford: Oxford University Press, second edition, 1988. Pp.329. £30.00. La Sfida Verde ‐ II Movimento Ecologista in Italia. Edited by R. Biorcio and G. Lodi. Padua: Liviana Editrice, 1988. Moral Monopoly. The Catholic Church in Modern Irish Society. By T. Inglis. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan. Pp.xi + 251. £7.95.

Factionalism, the French socialist party and the fifth Republic: An explanation of intra‐party divisions

Abstract. This article traces the evolution of factions (the term preferred to that of ‘fraction’) within the French Socialist party (PS) from the early twentieth century until 1981, with special reference to the post‐1971 PS as a party of opposition. It concentrates on the causes and structures of factions, as well as their location in relation to the wider political system and the degree of political space they were able to occupy within the party. It argues that factions were divided by personal rivalries (accentuated by the presidentialised Fifth Republic), ideological and party policy differences, party strategy, power rivalries within the organisation and different historical origins. Factions corresponded more or less to a series of ideal‐types. These were the organisation faction, whose power stemmed from its position within the party organisation; the parallel faction, whose separate factional structures paralled official party ones, and the external faction, which attempted to transform external popularity into internal party strength. Four factions prevailed: Mitterrand, Mauroy, CERES and Rocard. Those headed by presidentiables enjoyed the most success, whereas the others gradually declined. The presidentialism of the French regime set the PS apart from its European counterparts.

French socialism and the fifth republic

The French Socialist Party's strategic acceptance of presidentialism in the Fifth Republic from 1971 created a relationship within the party which involved its discourse, its organisation, and the treatment of leadership within Socialism. The relationship between these elements changed after 1981 as a result of the party's winning the Presidency and attaining government. In the 1984–86 period, ‘modernisation’ began the adaptation of discourse to the new relationship. The 1987 party congress saw the partial adaptation of organisation. However, the problems encountered in the third area, leadership, after March 1986, demonstrated how problematic the triple relation organisation/discourse/leadership was, and how profound the effects of the Republic have been.

Keeping Left? Ceres and the French Socialist Party

Keeping Left? Ceres and the French Socialist Party

Class and Socialist Politics in France

This article shows how the French Socialist Party's political practice, economic policies and socialist vision have been shaped by the Party's formulation and use of class concepts. It offers a Marxist critique of the Socialists' power-based understanding of class and shows how this allowed for economic policies to promote capitalist growth rather than transform the nature of class exploitation.

Marxism and the French Left: Studies in Labour and Politics in France, 1830-1981

List of Maps and Figures1 The Left in France2 The French Labour Movement in the Nineteenth Century3 The French Socialist Party 1920-19364 French Marxism 1945-19755 The Elections in 1981 in Historical Perspective Bibliography Chronology Index

The French Socialist Party. Resurgence and Victory

The French Socialist Party. Resurgence and Victory

Keeping left? Ceres and the French Socialist Party: a contribution to the study of fractionalism in political parties

Journal Article Keeping left? Ceres and the French Socialist Party: a contribution to the study of fractionalism in political parties Get access Keeping left? Ceres and the French Socialist Party: a contribution to the study of fractionalism in political parties. By David Hanley. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 1986. 278pp. Index. £27.50. ISBN 0 7190 1764 5. David S. Bell David S. Bell 1University of Leeds Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 62, Issue 4, autumn 1986, Pages 683–684, https://doi.org/10.2307/2618600 Published: 01 October 1986

The French Socialist Party: Resurgence and VictoryD. S. Bell and Byron Criddle Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984, pp. x, 311

The French Socialist Party: Resurgence and VictoryD. S. Bell and Byron Criddle Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984, pp. x, 311

The French Socialist Party: Resurgence and Victory

...the reader who is interested in French politics but does not wish to read more than one book on the Parti Socialiste will find here everything he needs.'___ The Times Literary Supplement .

The French Socialist Party: resurgence and victory

The French Socialist Party: resurgence and victory

Attitudinal Change and Elite Circulation: French Socialist Candidates in 1967 and 1978

The effects of elite circulation on attitudinal change in the French Socialist Party between 1967 and 1978 are examined using interview data to estimate aggregate party change, which is decomposed into change due to conversion of old elites and change due to the replacement of old elites by new ones. A typology of net party change is constructed, and the degree of stability of elite opinion is investigated at the district level. It is found that elite circulation can be a force for organizational continuity as well as for organizational change, and that there is stability of elite opinion at the district level only on issues pertaining to traditional local party orientations or constant district interests.

Consensus of silence: the French Socialist Party and defence policy under François Mitterrand

Consensus of silence: the French Socialist Party and defence policy under François Mitterrand

The crisis of the French socialist party

The crisis of the French socialist party