Exceptional Socialists: The Case of the French Socialist Party (French Politics, Society and Culture)

This engaging exploration of the French Socialist Party details the exceptional problems that the party has faced and the way it has dealt with them. The result is a comprehensive and compelling guide to the quiddities of political infighting, the structure of power and of the environment in which the party operates. Francois Hollande's election to the French Presidency in 2012 was anticipated many years before he triumphed at the polls but the French Socialist Party from which the new President emerged remains much less well-known, an issue that this important and vivid study now addresses. The exceptional nature of French social democracy is a staple theme of the political literature on France; this book explores in detail the main features of that exceptionalism through in-depth and compelling analyses of the factional intricacies, personal disputes and power structure of the party as well as deconstructing its ideology. Furthermore, the text also examines how these features have manifested themselves externally by discussing the place of the Socialist Party in the French party system, the primary elections and the social basis of the party and its support. This engaging exploration of French government and party politics over the past 50 years draws on both the authors' close engagement with the French political system over many years and constitutes is important reading for students and scholars of French party politics, political history and government Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction: Exceptional Socialists....Pages 1-10 The Competitive Context....Pages 11-31 Party Organisation....Pages 32-57 Party Factional Identity and Personalities....Pages 58-82 Presidentialism and Primaries....Pages 83-103 Ideology and Policy....Pages 104-122 The Challenge from the Minoritarian Left....Pages 123-147 Socialist Politics Post-Mitterrand 1988–2002....Pages 148-176 Socialist Party Development after 2002....Pages 177-203 Conclusion....Pages 204-216 Back Matter....Pages 217-235