Political history of France
The political history of France covers the history of political movements and systems of government in the nation of France, from the earliest stages of the history of France until the present day. This political history might be considered to start with the formation of the Kingdom of France, and continue until the present day.
Political history is the narrative and survey of political events, ideas, movements, organs of government, voters, parties and leaders.[1] It is closely related to other fields of history, including diplomatic history, constitutional history, social history, people's history, and public history. Political history studies the organization and operation of power in large societies.
Monarchy of France
The
Origins
France originated as West Francia (Francia Occidentalis), the western half of the Carolingian Empire, with the Treaty of Verdun (843). A branch of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule until 987, when Hugh Capet was elected king and founded the Capetian dynasty. The territory remained known as Francia and its ruler as rex Francorum ("king of the Franks") well into the High Middle Ages. The first king calling himself rex Francie ("King of France") was Philip II, in 1190, and officially from 1204. From then, France was continuously ruled by the Capetians and their cadet lines under the Valois and Bourbon until the monarchy was abolished in 1792 during the French Revolution. The Kingdom of France was also ruled in personal union with the Kingdom of Navarre over two time periods, 1284–1328 and 1572–1620, after which the institutions of Navarre were abolished and it was fully annexed by France (though the King of France continued to use the title "King of Navarre" through the end of the monarchy).[2]
France in the Middle Ages was a decentralised, feudal monarchy. In Brittany and Catalonia (now a part of Spain), as well as Aquitaine, the authority of the French king was barely felt. Lorraine and Burgundy were states of the Holy Roman Empire and not yet a part of France. West Frankish kings were initially elected by the secular and ecclesiastical magnates, but the regular coronation of the eldest son of the reigning king during his father's lifetime established the principle of male primogeniture, which became codified in the Salic law.
During the
Ancien Régime
The Ancien Régime
The administrative and social structures of the Ancien Régime in France evolved across years of state-building, legislative acts (like the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts), and internal conflicts. The Valois dynasty's attempts at reform and at re-establishing control over the scattered political centres of the country were hindered by the Wars of Religion from 1562 to 1598.[9] During the Bourbon dynasty, much of the reigns of Henry IV (r. 1589–1610) and Louis XIII (r. 1610–1643) and the early years of Louis XIV (r. 1643–1715) focused on administrative centralization. Despite the notion of "absolute monarchy" (typified by the king's right to issue orders through lettres de cachet) and efforts to create a centralized state, Ancien Régime France remained a country of systemic irregularities: administrative, legal, judicial, and ecclesiastic divisions and prerogatives frequently overlapped, while the French nobility struggled to maintain their rights in the matters of local government and justice, and powerful internal conflicts (such as The Fronde) protested against this centralization.
Civil wars 1648 - 1653
The Fronde [10] was a series of civil wars in the Kingdom of France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. King Louis XIV confronted the combined opposition of the princes, the nobility, the law courts (parlements), as well as most of the French people, and managed to subdue them all. The dispute started when the government of France issued seven fiscal edicts, six of which were to increase taxation. The parlements resisted and questioned the constitutionality of the King's actions and sought to check his powers.[11]
The Fronde was divided into two campaigns, the Parlementary Fronde and the Fronde of the
The Fronde represented the final attempt of the French nobility to do battle with the king, and they were humiliated. In the long term, the Fronde served to strengthen royal authority, but weakened the economy. The Fronde facilitated the emergence of absolute monarchy.[12]
The Spanish Empire, which had promoted the Fronde to the point that without its support, it would have had a more limited character, benefited from the internal upheaval in France since it contributed to the Spanish military's renewed success in its war against the French between 1647 and 1656, so much so that the year 1652 could be considered a Spanish annus mirabilis.[13] Only the later English intervention in the form of the Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660) in favor of France would change the situation.
16th to 18th centuries
In the 16th to the 17th centuries, the First French colonial empire stretched from a total area at its peak in 1680 to over 10,000,000 square kilometres (3,900,000 sq mi), the second-largest empire in the world at the time behind the Spanish Empire. Colonial conflicts with Great Britain led to the loss of much of its North American holdings by 1763.
Seven Years' War
The
In a realignment of traditional alliances, known as the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, Prussia became part of a coalition led by Britain, which also included long-time Prussian competitor Hanover, at the time in personal union with Britain. At the same time, Austria ended centuries of conflict between the Bourbon and Habsburg families by allying with France, along with Saxony, Sweden, and Russia. Spain aligned formally with France in 1761, joining France in the Third Family Compact between the two Bourbon monarchies. Smaller German states either joined the Seven Years' War or supplied mercenaries to the parties involved in the conflict.
Anglo-French conflicts broke out in their North American colonies in 1754, when British and French colonial militias and their respective Native American allies engaged in small skirmishes, and later full-scale colonial warfare. The colonial conflicts would become a theatre of the Seven Years' War when war was officially declared two years later, and it effectively ended France's presence as a land power on that continent. It was "the most important event to occur in eighteenth-century North America"[15][attribution needed] prior to the American Revolution. Spain entered the war on the French side in 1762, unsuccessfully attempting to invade Britain's ally Portugal in what became known as the Fantastic War.
The alliance with France was a disaster for Spain, with the loss to Britain of two major ports, Havana in Cuba and Manila in the Philippines, returned in the 1763 Treaty of Paris between France, Spain and Great Britain. In Europe, the large-scale conflict that drew in most of the European powers was centred on the desire of Austria (long the political centre of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation) to recover Silesia from Prussia. The Treaty of Hubertusburg ended the war between Saxony, Austria and Prussia, in 1763.
Britain began its rise as the world's predominant colonial and naval power. France's supremacy in Europe was halted until after the French Revolution and the emergence of Napoleon Bonaparte. Prussia confirmed its status as a great power, challenging Austria for dominance within the German states, thus altering the European balance of power.
Later developments
French intervention in the American Revolutionary War helped the United States secure independence from King George III and the Kingdom of Great Britain, but was costly and achieved little for France.
Following the
French Revolution
Background
The underlying
Between 1700 and 1789, the French population grew from an estimated 21 to 28 million, while Paris alone had over 600,000 inhabitants, of whom roughly one third had no regular work.[19] Food production failed to keep up with these numbers, and although wages increased by 22% between 1770 and 1790, in the same period prices rose by 65%,[20] which many blamed on government inaction.[21] Combined with a series of poor harvests, by 1789 the result was a rural peasantry with nothing to sell, and an urban proletariat whose purchasing power had collapsed.[22]
High levels of state debt, which acted as a drag on the wider economy, are often attributed to the 1778–1783 Anglo-French War. However, one economic historian argues "neither [its] level in 1788, or previous history, can be considered an explanation for the outbreak of revolution in 1789".[23] In 1788, the ratio of debt to gross national income in France was 55.6%, compared to 181.8% in Britain, and although French borrowing costs were higher, the percentage of revenue devoted to interest payments was roughly the same in both countries.[24]
The problem lay in the assessment and collection of the taxes used to fund government expenditure. Rates varied widely from one region to another, were often different from the official amounts, and collected inconsistently. Complexity, as much as the financial burden, caused resentment among all taxpayers; although the nobility paid significantly less than other classes, they complained just as much.[25] [b] Attempts to simplify the system were blocked by the regional Parlements which controlled financial policy. The resulting impasse in the face of widespread economic distress led to the calling of the Estates-General, which became radicalised by the struggle for control of public finances.[27]
Although willing to consider reforms, Louis XVI often backed down when faced with opposition from conservative elements within the nobility.
Societal conditions
The French Revolution was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy,[29] while the values and institutions it created remain central to French political discourse.[30]
Its
The next three years were dominated by the struggle for political control, exacerbated by economic depression and civil disorder. Austria, Britain, Prussia and other external powers sought to restore the Ancien Régime by force, while many French politicians saw war as the best way to unite the nation and preserve the revolution by exporting it to other countries. These factors resulted in the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in April 1792, abolition of the French monarchy and proclamation of the French First Republic in September 1792, followed by the execution of Louis XVI in January 1793.
Following the
National Convention
The
The Convention came about when the Legislative Assembly decreed the provisional suspension of King Louis XVI and the convocation of a National Convention to draw up a new constitution with no monarchy. The other major innovation was to decree that deputies to that Convention should be elected by all Frenchmen twenty-one years old or more, domiciled for a year and living by the product of their labor. The National Convention was, therefore, the first French assembly elected by a suffrage without distinctions of class.[31]
Although the Convention lasted until 1795, power was effectively delegated by the Convention and concentrated in the small Committee of Public Safety from April 1793. The eight months from the fall of 1793 to the spring of 1794, when Maximilien Robespierre and his allies dominated the Committee of Public Safety, represent the most radical and bloodiest phase of the French Revolution, known as the Reign of Terror. After the fall of Robespierre, the Convention lasted for another year until a new constitution was written, ushering in the French Directory.
The Directory
The Directory (also called Directorate) was the governing five-member
The Directory was continually at war with foreign coalitions, including
The French economy was in continual crisis during the Directory. At the beginning, the treasury was empty; the paper money, the Assignat, had fallen to a fraction of its value, and prices soared. The Directory stopped printing assignats and restored the value of the money, but this caused a new crisis; prices and wages fell, and economic activity slowed to a standstill.
In its first two years, the Directory concentrated on ending the excesses of the
In 1799, after several defeats, French victories in the Netherlands and Switzerland restored the French military position, but the Directory had lost all the political factions' support, including some of its Directors. Bonaparte returned from Egypt in October, and was engaged by Abbé Sieyès and others to carry out a parliamentary coup d'état on 9–10 November 1799. The coup abolished the Directory and replaced it with the French Consulate led by Bonaparte.
War with European powers
The
Initially, the rulers of Europe viewed the
Despite some victories in 1792, by early 1793, France was in terrible crisis: French forces had been pushed out of Belgium; also there was
The
In the
In the
In the 1797 military campaigns, Bonaparte carried all before him against Sardinia and Austria in northern Italy (1796–1797) near the Po Valley, culminating in the Peace of Leoben and the Treaty of Campo Formio (October 1797). The First Coalition collapsed, leaving only Britain in the field fighting against France.
The Consulate
The Consulate was the top-level Government of France from the fall of the
During this period,
Nineteenth Century
Reign of Napoleon
The First French Empire, officially the French Republic,
Although France had already established a
On 18 May 1804, Napoleon was granted the title Emperor of the French (Empereur des Français, pronounced [ɑ̃.pʁœʁ de fʁɑ̃.sɛ]) by the French Sénat conservateur and was crowned on 2 December 1804,[43] signifying the end of the French Consulate and of the French First Republic. Despite his coronation, the state continued to be formally called the "French Republic" until October 1808. The Empire achieved military supremacy in mainland Europe through notable victories in the War of the Third Coalition against Austria, Prussia, Russia, Britain and allied states, notably at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805.[44] French dominance was reaffirmed during the War of the Fourth Coalition, at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt in 1806 and the Battle of Friedland in 1807,[45] before Napoleon's final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
A series of wars, known collectively as the Napoleonic Wars, extended French influence to much of Western Europe and into Poland. At its height in 1812, the French Empire had 130 departments, ruled over 44 million subjects, maintained an extensive military presence in Germany, Italy, Spain, and Poland, and counted Austria and Prussia as nominal allies.[46] Early French victories exported many ideological features of the Revolution throughout Europe: the introduction of the Napoleonic Code throughout the continent increased legal equality, established jury systems and legalized divorce, and seigneurial dues and seigneurial justice were abolished, as were aristocratic privileges in all places except Poland. [47]
France's defeat in 1814 (and then again in 1815), marked the end of the First French Empire and the beginning of the Bourbon Restoration.
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of conflicts fought between the
Upon realising the Coup of 18 Brumaire, whereby he became the First Consul of France in 1799, Napoleon assumed control of the politically chaotic French First Republic. He then organised a financially stable French state with a strong bureaucracy and a professional army. War broke out soon after, with Britain declaring war on France on 18 May 1803, ending the Peace of Amiens, and forming a coalition made up of itself, Sweden, Russia, Naples, and Sicily. Frank McLynn argues that Britain went to war in 1803 out of a "mixture of economic motives and national neuroses—an irrational anxiety about Napoleon's motives and intentions." The British fleet under Admiral Nelson decisively crushed the joint Franco-Spanish navy in the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805. This victory secured British control of the seas and prevented a planned invasion of Britain. In December 1805, Napoleon defeated the allied Russo-Austrian army at Austerlitz, effectively ending the Third Coalition and forcing Austria to make peace. Concerned about increasing French power, Prussia led the creation of the Fourth Coalition with Russia, Saxony, and Sweden, which resumed war in October 1806. Napoleon soon defeated the Prussians at Jena-Auerstedt and the Russians at Friedland, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. The treaty failed to end the tension, and war broke out again in 1809, with the badly prepared Fifth Coalition, led by Austria. At first, the Austrians won a significant victory at Aspern-Essling, but were quickly defeated at Wagram.
Hoping to isolate and weaken Britain economically through his Continental System, Napoleon launched an invasion of Portugal, the only remaining British ally in continental Europe. After occupying Lisbon in November 1807, and with the bulk of French troops present in Spain, Napoleon seized the opportunity to turn against his former ally, depose the reigning Spanish royal family and declare his brother King of Spain in 1808 as José I. The Spanish and Portuguese revolted with British support and expelled the French from Iberia in 1814 after six years of fighting.
Concurrently, Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, routinely violated the Continental System, prompting Napoleon to launch a massive invasion of Russia in 1812. The resulting campaign ended in disaster for France and the near-destruction of Napoleon's Grande Armée.
Encouraged by the defeat, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and Russia formed the Sixth Coalition and began a new campaign against France, decisively defeating Napoleon at Leipzig in October 1813 after several inconclusive engagements. The Allies then invaded France from the east, while the Peninsular War spilled over into southwestern France. Coalition troops captured Paris at the end of March 1814 and forced Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba, and the Bourbons were restored to power. However, Napoleon escaped in February 1815, and reassumed control of France for around One Hundred Days. The allies formed the Seventh Coalition, defeated him at Waterloo in June 1815, and exiled him to the island of Saint Helena, where he died six years later.[48]
The wars had profound consequences on global history, including the spread of nationalism and liberalism, advancements in civil law, the rise of Britain as the world's foremost naval and economic power, the appearance of independence movements in Spanish America and subsequent decline of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, the fundamental reorganization of German and Italian territories into larger states, and the introduction of radically new methods of conducting warfare. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Congress of Vienna redrew Europe's borders and brought a relative peace to the continent, lasting until the Crimean War in 1853.
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration was the period of
July Monarchy
After the July Revolution of 1830, royal power was once again secured and the July Monarchy was established. The July Monarchy governed under principles of moderate conservatism, and improved relations with the UK. The July Revolution was a second French Revolution. It led to the overthrow of King Charles X, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans. After 18 precarious years on the throne, Louis-Philippe was overthrown in the French Revolution of 1848.
The 1830 Revolution marked a shift from one
The July Monarchy, officially the Kingdom of France, was a liberal constitutional monarchy in France under Louis Philippe I, starting on 26 July 1830, with the July Revolution of 1830, and ending 23 February 1848, with the Revolution of 1848. It marks the end of the Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830). It began with the overthrow of the conservative government of Charles X, the last king of the main line House of Bourbon.
Louis Philippe, a member of the more liberal Orléans branch of the House of Bourbon, proclaimed himself as Roi des Français ("King of the French") rather than "King of France", emphasizing the popular origins of his reign. The king promised to follow the juste milieu, or the middle-of-the-road, avoiding the extremes of both the conservative supporters of Charles X and radicals on the left.
The July Monarchy was dominated by wealthy bourgeoisie and numerous former Napoleonic officials. It followed conservative policies, especially under the influence (1840–48) of François Guizot. The king promoted friendship with the United Kingdom and sponsored colonial expansion, notably the French conquest of Algeria. By 1848, a year in which many European states had a revolution, the king's popularity had collapsed, and he abdicated.
French Second Republic
The French Second Republic, officially the French Republic, was the second republican government of France. It existed from 1848 until its dissolution in 1852.
In 1848,
Louis-Napoléon overthrew the republic in an
Coup of 1851
The coup d'état of 2 December 1851 was a
Faced with the prospect of having to leave office in 1852, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (nephew of
The Second French Empire, officially the "French Empire," was an Imperial
Historians in the 1930s and 1940s often disparaged the Second Empire as a
Historians have generally given the Second Empire negative evaluations on its foreign policy, and somewhat more positive evaluations of domestic policies, especially after Napoleon III liberalised his rule after 1858. He promoted French business and exports. The greatest achievements included a grand railway network that facilitated commerce and tied the nation together with Paris as its hub. This stimulated economic growth and brought prosperity to most regions of the country. The Second Empire is given high credit for the rebuilding of Paris with broad boulevards, striking public buildings and elegant residential districts for higher class Parisians.
In international policy, Napoleon III tried to emulate his uncle Napoleon I, engaging in numerous imperial ventures around the world as well as several wars in Europe. He began his reign with French victories in Crimea and in Italy, gaining Savoy and Nice.
Using very harsh methods, he built up the French Empire in French North Africa and in French Indochina in Southeast Asia. Napoleon III also launched an intervention in Mexico seeking to erect a Second Mexican Empire and bring it into the French orbit, but this ended in a fiasco.
He badly mishandled the threat from
Third Republic (1870 – 1940)
The French Third Republic was the system of government adopted in
The early days of the Third Republic were dominated by political disruptions caused by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, which the Republic continued to wage after the fall of Emperor Napoleon III in 1870. Harsh reparations exacted by the Prussians after the war resulted in the loss of the French regions of Alsace (keeping the Territoire de Belfort) and Lorraine (the northeastern part, i.e. present-day department of Moselle), social upheaval, and the establishment of the Paris Commune. The early governments of the Third Republic considered re-establishing the monarchy, but disagreement as to the nature of that monarchy and the rightful occupant of the throne could not be resolved. Consequently, the Third Republic, originally envisioned as a provisional government, instead became the permanent form of government of France.
The
The Third Republic established many
The period from the start of
During the 19th and 20th centuries, the French colonial empire was the second largest colonial empire in the world only behind the
Fourth Republic
The French Fourth Republic was the republican government of France from 27 October 1946 to 4 October 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution of 13 October 1946. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Republic, which governed from 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War to 1940 during World War II, and it suffered many of the same problems.
Despite political dysfunction, the Fourth Republic saw an era of great economic growth in France and the rebuilding of the nation's social institutions and industry after World War II, with assistance from the United States through the Marshall Plan. It also saw the beginning of the rapprochement with France's longtime enemy Germany, which led to Franco-German co-operation and eventually to the European Union.
The new constitution made some attempts to strengthen the executive branch of government to prevent the unstable situation before the war, but instability remained and the Fourth Republic saw frequent changes of government – there were 21 administrations in its 12-year history. Moreover, the government proved unable to make effective decisions regarding decolonization of the numerous remaining French colonies. After a series of crises culminating in the Algerian crisis of 1958, the Fourth Republic collapsed. Wartime leader Charles de Gaulle returned from retirement to preside over a transitional administration empowered to design a new French constitution. The Fourth Republic was dissolved on 5 October 1958 following a public referendum which established the current Fifth Republic with a strengthened presidency.
Coup of May 1958
Political background
The May 1958 crisis, also known as the "Algiers putsch" or "the coup of 13 May" was a political crisis in
The coup had as its aim to oppose the formation of Pierre Pflimlin's new government and to impose a change of policies in favor of the right-wing partisans of French Algeria.
Initial events
After his tour as Governor General,
Salan announced on radio that the Army had "provisionally taken over responsibility for the destiny of French Algeria". Under the pressure of Massu, Salan declared Vive de Gaulle! from the balcony of the Algiers Government-General building on 15 May. De Gaulle answered two days later that he was ready to "assume the powers of the Republic".[59] Many worried as they saw this answer as support for the army.[57]: 373–416 At a 19 May press conference, de Gaulle asserted again that he was at the disposal of the country. When a journalist expressed the concerns of some who feared that he would violate civil liberties, de Gaulle retorted vehemently:
Have I ever done that? Quite the opposite, I have reestablished them when they had disappeared. Who honestly believes that, at age 67, I would start a career as a dictator?[57]
On 24 May, French
Political leaders on many sides agreed to support the General's return to power with the notable exceptions of
De Gaulle's return to power (29 May 1958)
On 29 May President René Coty told parliament that the nation was on the brink of civil war, so he was "turning towards the most illustrious of Frenchmen, towards the man who, in the darkest years of our history, was our chief for the reconquest of freedom and who refused dictatorship in order to re-establish the Republic. I ask General de Gaulle to confer with the head of state and to examine with him what, in the framework of Republican legality, is necessary for the immediate formation of a government of national safety and what can be done, in a fairly short time, for a deep reform of our institutions."[63]
De Gaulle accepted Coty's proposal under the precondition that a new constitution would be introduced creating a powerful presidency in which a sole executive, the first of which was to be himself, ruled for seven-year periods. Another condition was that he be granted extraordinary powers for a period of six months.[64]
De Gaulle's newly formed cabinet was approved by the National Assembly on 1 June 1958, by 329 votes against 224, while he was granted the power to govern by
The May 1958 crisis indicated that the Fourth Republic by 1958 no longer had any support from the French army in Algeria, and was at its mercy even in civilian political matters. This decisive shift in the balance of power in civil-military relations in France in 1958 and the threat of force was the main immediate factor in the return of de Gaulle to power in France.
The Fifth Republic
Origins and History (1958–1981)
During the
The political instability characteristic of the Fourth Republic was gone. The far-right extremists who had threatened military coups over the question of French Algeria largely receded after Algeria was granted independence. The French Communist Party's image gradually became less radical. Politics largely turned into a Gaullists vs left-wing opposition.[65]
The Gaullist government, however, was criticized for its heavy-handedness: while elections were free, the state had a monopoly on radio and TV broadcasting and sought to have its point of view on events imposed (this monopoly was not absolute, however, since there were radio stations transmitting from nearby countries specifically for the benefit of the French).
Although Gaullism, which had gained legitimacy during World War II, initially also attracted several left-wing individuals, Gaullism in government became decidedly conservative.
In 1962, de Gaulle had the French citizens vote in a
May 1968 failed revolution, and De Gaulle resignation
In May 1968, a series of worker strikes and student riots rocked France. These did not, however, result in an immediate change of government, with a right-wing administration being triumphantly reelected in the snap election of June 1968. However, in 1969 the French electorate turned down a
May '68 and its aftermaths saw the occupation of the
Georges Pompidou, de Gaulle's Prime Minister, was elected in 1969, remaining President until his death in 1974. In 1972,
After Pompidou's sudden death, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing managed to overhaul the remaining Gaullist barons – with the help of Jacques Chirac —, and won the subsequent election against François Mitterrand on the left. Giscard transformed the
Mitterrand Presidency (1981–1995)
In 1981,
. Mitterrand served until 1995.After securing a majority in parliament through a snap election, his government ran a program of social and economic reforms:
- social policies:
- abolition of the death penalty;
- removal of legislation criminalizing certain homosexual behaviors: lowering of the age of consent for homosexual sex to that for heterosexual sex (since the French Revolution, France had never criminalized homosexuality between adults in private)[66]
- liberalization of media
- creation of a solidarity tax on wealth (ISF) and reform of the inheritance tax
- economic policies:
- the government embarked on a wave of nationalizations;
- the duration of the legal workweek was set to 39 hours, instead of the previous 40 hours.
- increase of the SMIC minimum wages
- institutional reforms:
- repealing of exceptional judicial procedures (courts-martial in peace-time, etc.)
However, in 1983, high inflation and economic woes forced a dramatic turnaround with respect to
Furthermore, the end of the Trente Glorieuses (Thirty Glorious) period of growth witnesses the beginning of a structural unemployment, which became an important political issue. Since the 1980s, unemployment has remained permanently high, at about 10% of the population, regardless of the policies applied to fight it.
In 1986, Jacques Chirac's neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) party won the legislative election.
Larger patterns and trends
For the first time in the Fifth Republic, a left-wing President was forced to work together with a right-wing Prime minister, leading to the first cohabitation. Although many commentators were surprised at the time, and considered it to be an institutional crisis, some claiming the Fifth Republic could not accommodate itself of such rivalry at the head of the state, cohabitation repeated itself after the 1993 elections, when the RPR again won the elections, and then after the 1997 elections, when the Socialist Party won, leading to the constitution of Lionel Jospin's Plural Left government while Chirac was only at the beginning of his first presidential term.
The tradition in periods of "cohabitation" (a President of one party, prime minister of another) is for the President to exercise the primary role in foreign and security policy, with the dominant role in domestic policy falling to the prime minister and his government. Jospin stated, however, that he would not a priori leave any domain exclusively to the President, as that was a tradition issued from de Gaulle.
Since then, the government alternated between a left-wing coalition (composed of the
The 1980s and 1990s saw also the rise of
Chirac coalition with the Left (1995–2002)
During his first two years in office, President
Mindful that the government might have to take politically costly decisions in advance of the legislative elections planned for spring 1998 in order to ensure that France met the Maastricht criteria for the single currency of the EU, Chirac decided in April 1997 to call early elections.
Jospin stated his support for continued European integration and his intention to keep France on the path towards Economic and Monetary Union, albeit with greater attention to social concerns.
Chirac and Jospin worked together, for the most part, in the foreign affairs field with representatives of the presidency and the government pursuing a single, agreed French policy. Their "cohabitation" arrangement was the longest-lasting in the history of the Fifth Republic.
The right in power 2002–2012
However, it ended subsequent to the legislative elections that followed Chirac's decisive defeat of Jospin (who failed even to make it through to the runoff) in the 2002 presidential election.
This led to President Chirac's appointment of Jean-Pierre Raffarin (UMP) as the new prime minister.
On 29 May 2005, French voters in the
This was generally regarded as a rebuke to Chirac and his government as well as the PS leadership, the majority save for the leftist faction and Laurent Fabius – had supported the proposed constitution. Two days later, Raffarin resigned and Chirac appointed
An enduring force is
The 23 February 2005
In Autumn 2005,
In 2006, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin enacted amendments that established a First Employment Contract, known as the CPE, a special kind of employment contract under which workers under the age of 26 could be hired and fired liberally.
Proponents of the measure argued that French workforce laws, which put the burden of proof on the employer for dismissing employees, dissuaded employers from hiring new employees; according to them, this is one reason while the
However, the plan backfired, with criticism both on the way the law was passed (using an exceptional legislative procedure) and on the law itself, which was criticized both for weakening workers' rights in general, and for singling out the young disfavourably instead of attempting to cure more general issues. Following the
Following from these events, Villepin lost all hopes of winning the presidency, and his government no longer tried to enact reforms.
Conservative
Socialists in power (2012-2017)
In
Macron's presidency (2017- present)
In the
In the 2022 presidential election president Macron was re-elected after beating his far-right rival, Marine Le Pen, in the runoff.[72] He was the first re-elected incumbent French president since 2002.[73]
In May 2022, President Emmanuel Macron's centrist party, La République en Marche, changed its name to
Issues
The issue of liberalism or socialism
One of the great questions of current French politics is that of libéralisme – that is,
According to historian
Some rightists, such as
Modern presidential campaigns
2012 presidential campaign
2017 presidential campaign
2022 presidential campaign
Major societal groups
Unions and leaders
Workers' unions.
- Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT): around 800,000 claimed members. It had traditional ties with the French Communist Party, but is currently tending more towards social-democratic views. 34.00%. General secretary : Philippe Martinez
- PS, and the first to sign with "patronat". 21.81%. General secretary : Laurent Berger
- Force Ouvrière (FO): 500,000 members. Anarcho-syndicalism to yellow syndicalism, depend of the union, split from the CGT (1947). 15.81%. General secretary: Jean-Claude Mailly
- Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens (CFTC): 140,000 members. Christian reformist. 8.69%. President: Jacques Voisin
- executive workers union which claims 180,000 members. 8.19%. President : Philippe Louis
- Union Nationale des Syndicats Autonomes (UNSA): 360,000 members. Reformist. 6.25%. general secretary: Alain Olive
- Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques, (SUD): heir of the "Group of 10", a group of radical trade unions ("syndicalisme de lutte"), 110,000 members, 3.82% ;
- Confédération Nationale du Travail(CNT): Anarcho-syndicalist trade union which claims 8,000 members
Employers' organisations
- Movements of French Corporations (Mouvement des Entreprises de France (MEDEF), formerly known as CNPF), sometimes referred to as patronat.
- General confederation of the little and middle corporations ("Confédération Générale des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises") (CGPME), aligned its position to the MEDEF.
Major parties and groupings
Left and Right in France and the main political parties
Since the 1789
French politics was for a long time characterised by two politically opposed groupings: one left-wing, centred on the
Liberal and centrist political party,
The Left
At the beginning of the 20th century, the French Left divided itself into:
- The Anarchists, who were more active in trade unions (they controlled the CGT from 1906 to 1909).
- Revolutionaries: the SFIO founded by Jean Jaurès, Jules Guesde etc.
- Reformists: the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Partyand non-SFIO socialists.
After World War I
- Unlike those in Spain, the Anarchists lost popularity and significance due to the nationalism brought about by World War I and lost the CGT-SR.
- The SFIO split in the 1920 Tours Congress, where a majority of SFIO members created the French Section of the Communist International (the future PCF).
- The SFIC, which quickly turned into a pro-Stalinist and isolated party (with no alliances), lost many of its original members, and changed only in 1934 (after a fascist attack to the Parliament on 6 February 1934) when it combined with the Popular Front.
- The minority of the SFIO who refused to join the Comintern retained the name and, led by Léon Blum, gradually regained ground from the Communists.
- The Radical Republicanism (sharing left-wing traits such as anti-clericalism), progressively moved more and more to the mainstream center, being one of the main governing parties between the two World Wars.
The Left was in power during:
- The Radicals and the SFIO, who do not participate in the government), from 1924 to 1926.
- From 1932 to the Radicalsand independent socialists).
- Under the .
After World War II
The Old Left
- The anarchist movements.
- The PCF remained an important force (around 28% in elections) despite it being in perpetual opposition after May 1947. From 1956 to the end of the 1970s it was interested in the ideas of "eurocommunism".
- The SFIO declined from 23.5% in 1946 to 15% in 1956 and increased only in 1967 (19.0%). It was in government from 1946 to 1951 and 1956–1958. It was transformed in 1971 (congrès d'Épinay) in the Parti Socialiste by reunion of various socialists "clubs", the SFIO,...
After 1959, both parties were in opposition until 1981. They had formed a coalition (with the Party Radical de Gauche) called the "Union de la Gauche" between 1972 and 1978.
The New Left (or Second Left)
The Old Left was contested on its left by the New Left parties including the:
- Cornelius Castoriadis's Socialisme ou Barbarie from 1948 to 1965
- Advocates of new social movements (including Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Pierre Bourdieu)
- Workers' Struggle
- The Revolutionary Communist League
- Others components of the New Left included the environmentalists (who would eventually found The Greensin 1982)
However, the emblem of the New Left was the Unified Socialist Party, or PSU.
The Moderate Centre-Left
- The Left Radical Party.
After the end of the Cold War
- In 1993, equal opportunities, opposition to multiculturalism).
- In 1994, communist and socialist dissidents created the eco-socialist platform, and they have 1 deputy, 8 mayors, and some councillors. They remain present in the Haute-Vienne and Val-de-Marne.
- In the 1990s and 2000s, some parties continued the inheritance of the PSU like Les Alternatifs, or ANPAG.
- The New Anticapitalist Party is founded in an attempt to unify the fractured movements of the French radical Left, and attract new activists drawing on the relative combined strength of far-left parties in presidential elections in 2002, where they achieved 10.44% of the vote, and 2007 (7.07%)?
The Right
The right-wing has been divided into three broad families by historian René Rémond.
Legitimists
These included:
- The ultra-royalists during the Bourbon Restoration
- The Action françaisemonarchist movement
- The supporters of the Vichy regime's Révolution nationale
- The activists of the OAS during the Algerian War (1954–1962)
- Most components of National Front
- Philippe de Villiers' conservative Movement for France
Orleanists
These included:
- The right-wing of the Radical Party
- The Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance
- The Christian-democratic Popular Republican Movement (MRP)
- Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's Independent Republicans
- The Union for a French Democracy
Large majority of the politicians of Nicolas Sarkozy's then-ruling Union for a Popular Movement could have been classified in this family.
Bonapartists
These included:
- Charles de Gaulle's various parties: first the Rally of the French People,
then the Union of Democrats for the Republic
- But also Poujadisme
Today
The
In 2002, the Gaullist RPR and the Union for French Democracy merged into the Union for a Popular Movement(UMP), although some elements of the old UDF remained outside the new alliance.[78] In 2015, the party's name was changed from Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) to The Republicans.[79]
In 2007, a section of the remaining UDF, headed by
In conclusion,
Residual monarchists movements, inheritors of
Another important theoretical influence in the far-right appeared in the 1980s with Alain de Benoist's Nouvelle Droite movement, organized into the GRECE.
Despite Le Pen's success in the 2002 presidential election, his party has been weakened by Bruno Mégret's spin-out, leading to the creation of the National Republican Movement, as well as by the concurrence of Philippe de Villiers' Movement for France, and also by the internal struggles concerning Le Pen's forthcoming succession.
See also
- Anti-nuclear movement in France
- Balladur jurisprudence
- History of the French far right
- History of the Left in France
- History of anarchism in France
- Liberalism and Radicalism in France
- Political party strength in France
- Sinistrisme
Notes
- ^ According to the Oxford English Dictionary (second edition, 1989) and the New Oxford American Dictionary (third edition, 2010), the original French is translated "old rule". The term no longer needs to be italicised since it has become part of the English language. According to the New Oxford American Dictionary (2010), when it is capitalised, it refers specifically to the political and social system in France before the French Revolution. When it is not capitalised, it can refer to any political or social system that has been displaced.
- ^ Contrary to what is often assumed, the nobility were subject to tax, although how much they were able to evade or pass onto their tenants is disputed.[26]
- ^ Domestically styled as French Republic until 1808: compare the French franc minted in 1808 and 1809, as well as Article 1 of the Constitution of the Year XII.[40]
References
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- ^ Dewever, Richard (14 June 2017). "On the changing size of nobility under Ancien Régime, 1500-1789" (PDF). L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
- ^ The National Assembly (19 June 1790). "Decree on the Abolition of the Nobility" (PDF). The Open University. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
- ^ "Ancien Regime", Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World, The Gale Group Inc., 2004, retrieved 26 February 2017 – via Encyclopedia.com
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- ^ Amigo Vázquez 2019, p. 185.
- ^ Elliott, J.H., Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492–1830. New Haven: Yale University Press 2006, p. 292.
- ^ Anderson 2007, p. xvii.
- ^ Sargent & Velde 1995, pp. 474–518.
- ^ Baker 1978, pp. 279–303.
- ^ Jordan 2004, pp. 11–12.
- ^ Garrioch 1994, p. 524.
- ^ Hufton 1983, p. 304.
- ^ Tilly 1983, p. 333.
- ^ Tilly 1983, p. 337.
- ^ Weir 1989, p. 101.
- ^ Weir 1989, p. 98.
- ^ Chanel 2015, p. 68.
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- ^ Anchel 1911.
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- ^ "French Revolutionary wars – Campaign of 1792 | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
- ^ a b Timothy Blanning. The French Revolutionary Wars, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 41–59.
- ^ (in French) R. Dupuy, Nouvelle histoire de la France contemporaine. La République jacobine, 2005, p.156.
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- ^ Holtman, Robert B. (1981). The Napoleonic Revolution. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. p. 31.
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- ^ "Constitution de l'An XII – Empire – 28 floréal An XII". Conseil constitutionnel. which reads in English The Government of the Republic is vested in an Emperor, who takes the title of Emperor of the French.
- ^ texte, France Auteur du (23 January 1804). "Bulletin des lois de la République française". Gallica.
- ^ "The proclamation of Empire by the Sénat Conservateur". napoleon.org. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
- ^ Thierry, Lentz. "The Proclamation of Empire by the Sénat Conservateur". napoleon.org. Fondation Napoléon. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
- ^ "Battle of Austerlitz". Britannica.com. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
- ^ Hickman, Kennedy. "Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Friedland". Retrieved 18 August 2023.
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Works cited
- Amigo Vázquez, Lourdes (2019). "Un nuevo escenario de la guerra con Francia. La intervención española en la Fronda (1648–1653)". Studia historica. Historia moderna (in Spanish). 41 (1). España: 153–188. S2CID 198725766.
- Anchel, Robert (1911). Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. . In
- Anderson, Fred (2007). Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766. Vintage – ISBN 978-0-307-42539-3.
- Baker, Michael (1978). "French political thought at the accession of Louis XVI". Journal of Modern History. 50 (2): 279–303. S2CID 222427515.
- Behrens, Betty (1976). "A Revision Defended: Nobles, Privileges, and Taxes in France". French Historical Studies. 9 (3): 521–527. JSTOR 286235.
- Chanel, Gerri (2015). "Taxation as a Cause of the French Revolution: Setting the Record Straight". Studia Historica Gedansia. 3.
- Doyle, William (1989). ISBN 978-0199252985.
- Fehér, Ferenc (1990). The French Revolution and the Birth of Modernity (1992 ed.). University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520071209.
- Garrioch, David (1994). "The People of Paris and Their Police in the Eighteenth Century. Reflections on the introduction of a 'modern' police force". European History Quarterly. 24 (4): 511–535. S2CID 144460864.
- Hannay, David (1911). Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. . In
- Hufton, Olwen (1983). "Social Conflict and the Grain Supply in Eighteenth-Century France". The Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 14 (2): 303–331. JSTOR 203707.
- Holland, Arthur William (1911). Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. . In
- Jordan, David (2004). The King's Trial: The French Revolution versus Louis XVI. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-23697-4.
- Livesey, James (2001). Making Democracy in the French Revolution. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-00624-9.
- Price, Roger (1996). "Napoleon III and the French Second Empire: A Reassessment of a Controversial Period in French History". Historian (52): 4–10.
- Price, Roger, ed. (2015). Documents on the Second French Empire, 1852–1870. Palgrave. p. 272. ISBN 9781137507341.
- Sargent, Thomas J; Velde, Francois R (1995). "Macroeconomic features of the French Revolution". Journal of Political Economy. 103 (3): 474–518. S2CID 153904650.
- Spitzer, Alan B. (1962). "The Good Napoleon III". JSTOR 285884.
- Tilly, Louise (1983). "Food Entitlement, Famine, and Conflict". The Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 14 (2): 333–349. JSTOR 203708.
- Weir, David (1989). "Tontines, Public Finance, and Revolution in France and England, 1688–1789". The Journal of Economic History. 49 (1): 95–124. S2CID 154494955.
- Wolf, John B. (1963). France: 1815 to the Present.
Further reading
- McClelland, J. S., ed. The French Right, from de Maistre to Maurras, in series, Roots of the Right and also Harper Torchbooks. New York: Harper & Row, 1971, cop. 1970. 320 p. ISBN 0-06-131628-8pbk
External links
- France’s Lost and Found Ideals by Patrice de Beer
- Vive la Revolution? by Marc Perelman, The Nation, 29 April 2009
- Will 2010 regional elections lead to political shake-up? Radio France Internationale in English
- www.frenchpolitics.fr Follow French politics in the run up to the 2012 Presidential election.