Developments in French Politics 4 (review)

Alistair Cole, Patrick Le Galès, and Jonah Levy provide in this volume a carefully chosen panorama of selected developments in French politics during the Chirac presidencies and the transition to the early years of the Sarkozy era. The contributors, from France, Britain, and North America, are established experts in their fields and write on topics ranging from trends in party politics, the party system, and elections to developments in political institutions and new rules for the game of politics, territorial politics, economic policy, industrial relations, welfare, bureaucracy and public management, international and European relations, protest politics, gender and multiculturalism, and French attitudes towards Europe. The range of topics is wide, therefore, but patently judicious and more than adequately covers what any student or researcher might wish to have to hand as a summary of how France was changing, or not, during the transition from Chirac to Sarkozy in the decade up until 2008. As the editors themselves point out in their clearly written and structured introductory chapter, although it is easy to see how the Chirac presidencies could in many ways be considered a 'lost decade' for France — the 'crisis' of Republican values, the economic stagnation, or the inability of the government to find solutions, for instance — the individual studies in the volume demonstrate that the amount of change and positive reform undertaken during Chirac's tenure was in fact greater than has generally been acknowledged, or, indeed, would be recognizable from Sarkozy's rhetoric of 'the return of France' and his presidential hyperactivity. Since the book was written, however, it may well be that the extra pressures on the French state and polity imposed by financial and monetary meltdown have further tempered the reality of Sarkozy-inspired movement against 'stalemate' and brought current endeavours to 'reform' even more into line with what might be considered the traditional pace and tenor of measures to adapt France to ever-changing times. All in all, this study is an invaluable source of detail and debate and will be required reading on any course dealing with contemporary France in its more political, economic, and social dimensions. Each of the chapters contains a useful guide to further reading, and the volume's overall bibliography is an equally fertile source of pointers for those wishing to pursue the issues raised.