The Mitterrand Transition

The French Fifth Republic is thirty years old. Its founder and first president, Charles de Gaulle, designed its constitution to achieve two overriding goals: to secure political stability by concentrating power in the hands of a strong presidency, and to exclude the left from political control. In the first he was eminently successful: the directly elected president supervises all areas of public life, either through his own office or through the prime minister whom he appoints. In the second...