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The Essence of Presidential Leadership in France: Pompidou, Giscard, Mitterrand, and Chirac as Coalition Builders
Author(s) -
Bell David S.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
politics and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.259
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1747-1346
pISSN - 1555-5623
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-1346.2002.tb00127.x
Subject(s) - presidency , presidential system , the republic , constitution , politics , institution , government (linguistics) , political science , public administration , relevance (law) , law , theology , philosophy , linguistics
This article is a comparative study of the political leadership of the presidents of the Fifth Republic. Successive presidents have dominated Fifth Republic politics and their leadership styles have given the Republic its distinctive attributes. In the years since de Gaulle, presidential leadership has been maintained, but only by the exercise of leadership skills of a high order because the presidency as such has no powers conferred on it by the Constitution. Presidents have organized coalitions of support and held them together, and these have been strong enough to determine the shape of the government as well as to support the institution of the presidency itself. This is an examination of an issue of acute contemporary relevance to French politics as well as investigating the presidency as a test bed for political leadership.