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France- unitary state
◦ Elections held with considerable frequency at every
territorial level
◦ Communes
◦ First European country to enfranchise a mass
electorate
◦ Women age 21 and older granted the vote in 1944
◦ Voting age lowered to 18 in 1974
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Right and left
Electoral system of the Fifth Republic favors
simplification of political alignments
French party organizations skeletal
◦ Fragmentary
◦ Modest linkage between national and local
◦ Party membership low
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Party system became more competitive in 1980s
Main political parties dominate the organization of
parliamentary work and the selection of candidates
◦ Less important as mass membership organizations
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Socialists nominate
Lionel Jospin
RPF nominates Jacques
Chirac (Mayor of Paris)
The second round
◦ Chirac 53%
◦ Jospin 47%
1995
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First Round
◦ Chirac 20%
◦ Le Pen edges out Jospin
(16.2%)
◦ Socialists shocked,
demoralized
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Second Round
◦ Chirac 82%
◦ Le Pen 18%
2002
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Historically levels of
participation high
Fifth Republic: lower
◦ Abstention seldom
reached 33% in
parliamentary elections
◦ Elections for European
parliament abstention
rises to almost 50%
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Elected every five
years (577 members)
◦ Similar to
primary
elections in US
◦ Absolute
majority for
election
First Round
◦ One week after first
round
◦ Dropped if didn’t
receive 12.5% of
registered voters on
first
◦ Plurality wins
◦ Many “deals” between
first and second
rounds
Second Round
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Two large camps
◦ Left of center to far left
◦ Right of center to far right
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Most political parties emerged from groups
that began inside of the legislature
◦ Mandate of “career, conscience, and constituency
◦ Slow and irregular industrialization hampered
strong working-class party

Multiparty tradition
◦ Conservative, rightist,
older and wealthier voters
◦ Lineal descendant of
Gaullist party
 Thrown together in 1958
 Georges Pompidou –
organizer
 For 16 years held both
presidency and
premiership
 Held majority in National
assembly after the
massive demonstrations of
1968
Rally for the Republic
(RPF)
Charles De Gaulle
◦ 1981 -1988 Jacques Chirac’s presidential bid
ends in defeat by Mitterand
◦ 1995 – President Chirac squeks in: Alain Juppé
Prime Minister (RPF)
◦ 1997 election defeat of RPF/Juppé replaced by
Leonel Jospin (Socialist)
◦ 2002 victory - and naming of Jean-Pierre
Raffarin
◦ 2005 (May) – Chirac names Dominique Villepin
as Prime Minister
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Union for French Democracy
◦ Valery Giscard d’Estaing and the Republicans
◦ Centerist alliance of 1978 creates UDN (Union
for French Democracy)
◦ UDF becomes third party on right after the
election of national assembly elections of 1997
and the regional elections of 1998
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Jean-Marie Le Pen – visible and vocal
Far right, support from working class
Young
Issues of law and order – and immigration
Split in 1998
◦ Stronger in local
elections than in central
elections
◦ Party of Francois
Mitterrand (after 1968)
◦ Emphasis on Culture
and public goods
Greater concern with
social justice than with
orthodox Marxist
ideology
Socialists: Party of
Government in 1980’s
Return to power in 2012
Francois Mitterrand
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Growing sense in 1990’s that Socialist Party
leadership had “worn out” or lost touch
◦ Socialist voters abandoned the government in the
Maastrich referendum of 1992
◦ Massive loss of parliamentary seats in 1993
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Unexpected recovery in 1997
2002 – again a massive loss of seats in the
National Assembly
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Socialist Party
◦ Alliance with working
class – weak
◦ Middle class favor
◦ Support
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Industrial north
Wine growers of south
Civil servants
Teachers
Fixed income
individuals
◦ Major force until 1970’s
◦ Closely aligned with the
Soviet Communist Party
◦ Swift electoral decline
◦ Georges Marchais
replaced by Robert Hue 1994
Communist Party of
France
French Communist Party
Headquarters – Paris

From National party to local prominence
◦ 1978 -1979, national youth delegate for the RPR.
◦ 1979 – 1981,president of the national youth
delegates under Jacques Chirac
(presidential election of 1981)
◦ 1983 – becomes mayor in the town of
Neuilly-sur-Seine.
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Upward in the National Party
◦ 1988, national secretary of the RPR, in charge of
youth and teaching issues.
◦ Since 1993, member of the RPR political
office.
◦ 1993 - 995, Minster for the budget in the
cabinet of Prime Minister Edouard
Balladur.
◦ 1995 - 1997, spokesman for the RPR
◦ 1998 - 1999, Secretary General of the RPR
.
1 Full employment by a policy of encouragement
and incentive to work for all
2 Higher wages by increasing working time on a
voluntary base and a policy of competitiveness
of our companies.
3 Reduction of the social contributions to the
professional associations.
4 Increase the skill of workforce
 make education more available
 vocational training
1 Equal opportunity to education
2 Evaluation of teachers based on what students have
learned.
3 To give autonomy to the school establishments
4 Allow the parents to choose and remove school
establishment.
5 To allow all the parents to choose sports and cultural
activities in place of specified mandatory activities.
1 Adapt annual flows of immigration to the needs and the
capacities of reception of France. ,
2 Eliminate concern with country of origin
3 Preferences to stable families
4 To attract the best students according to the needs for our
economy and those of the countries of origin.
5 To develop the use of biometric technologies to insure
integrity of the official documents.
1 Increase and protect the budget devoted to the
Ministry for the Culture
2 Emphasize acquisition of works, rather than on
the administrative expenditures.
3 Put artistic education at the school in the middle
of the step of cultural democratization.
4 Allow artistic young people more access to the
large schools and in the university courses.
5 Regulate role of patrons and foundations
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Difficulties
associated with
being a female
candidate (attacks
from within her
own party)
First female
candidate for
president
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Anti-abortion
Forced military
service
Reinstatement of the
death penalty
Opposes
immigration,
particularly of
Muslims
Repeats proposal to
“send back” 3 million
non-Europeans to
their homeland

The 2005 riots made immigration and
immigrants from North Africa a key issue in
the 2007 French presidential election.

Le Pen: longtime proponent of addressing immigration and
reinstating law and order, has become more popular and
relevant as a result of the riots.

Villipin : as Prime Minister implemented tougher restrictions
on immigration immediately after the riots.

Sarkozy: referred to the young people living in housing
projects “scum.”

President Chirac: perceived mishandling of early riots and
the socio-economic factors leading to more rioting that
damaged the candidates most associated with him
(especially Dominique de Villipan)
Results- Round 1
(Major Candidates)
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Nicolas Sarkozy Union for a Popular Movement
(Union pour un mouvement populaire) 11,448,663
31.18%
Ségolène Royal Socialist Party (Parti socialiste)
9,500,112 25.87%
François Bayrou Union for French Democracy
(Union pour la démocratie française) 6,820,119
18.57%
Jean-Marie Le Pen National Front (Front national)
3,834,530 10.44%
Results - Round 1
(Minor Candidates)
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Olivier Besancenot Revolutionary Communist
League (Ligue communiste révolutionnaire)
1,498,581 4.08%
Philippe de Villiers Movement for France
(Mouvement pour la France) 818,407 2.23%
Marie-George Buffet Popular and anti-liberal Left,
supported by the French Communist Party (gauche
populaire et antilibérale, soutenue par le Parti
communiste français) 707,268 1.93%
Dominique Voynet The Greens (Les Verts) 576,666
1.57%
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Nicolas Sarkozy Union for a Popular
Movement
(Union pour un mouvement
populaire)
18,983,138 53.06%
Ségolène Royal Socialist Party
(Parti socialiste)
16,790,440 46.94%
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Favors European
Constitution
Advisor to Mitterrand
Hollande 56.85.%
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Author of heath care
legislation
From industrial north
Aubry 43.15%
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Socialists
Left
Sarkoxie – ran for
reelection
Right
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Marine Le Pen
National Front (Front national)
FN
6,421,426
17.90%
Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Left Front (Front de gauche)
FG
3,984,822
11.10%
François Bayrou
Democratic Movement (Mouvement démocrate)
MoDem
3,275,122
9.13%
Europe Écologie–The Greens (Europe Écologie–Les Verts)
828,345 (2.31%)
Others (2.9% )
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François Hollande
Socialist Party (Parti socialiste)
PS
10,272,705
28.63%
18,000,668
51.64%
Nicolas Sarcoxie
Union for a Popular Movement (Union pour un mouvement populaire)
UMP
9,753,629
27.18%
16,860,685
48.36%