Parties and Voters in France

This study of the political landscape in France which has changed considerably over the last decade attempts to show how political stability comfortably survived the victory of the Left in 1981 and "cohabitation" between a socialist president and a conservative government in 1986-8. How to return to power of General de Gaulle produced the new phenomenon of majority government, and an explanation of that phenomenon occupy two chapters, and there follow separate studies of the parties and blocs, and of the electoral system, the different forms of election, referenda and electoral behaviour. The 1988 election result is analyzed in detail.