The unsolved contradictions of the modernists. Economic policy expectations and political crisis in France 1978-2012

Bruno Amable

Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne from Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne

Abstract: This paper analyses the French political crisis since the late 1970s by investigating the links between the social structure and the economic policy expectations of the electorate. To this end, data on post-electoral survey are used to estimate structural models of political support to political parties for 1978 and 2012, and the estimation results are used to propose an analysis of the French crisis. The enduring French political crisis is found to be the expression of contradictions between the economic policies implemented by the successive governments and the existence of a dominant social bloc, i.e. a coalition of social groups that would politically support the dominant political strategy. Since 1978, both the right and the left have failed to find a solution to the contradictions between the policies they implemented and the expectations of their social bases, which are themselves inhabited by tensions and contradictions that evolve with the structure of French capitalism. The failure of all governing coalitions so far is a new expression of that of the “modernists” to take into account the expectations of the popular classes

Keywords: France; political crisis; political economy; social base (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2014-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-ger, nep-hme and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The unsolved contradictions of the modernists. Economic policy expectations and political crisis in France 1978-2012 (2014)
Working Paper: The unsolved contradictions of the modernists. Economic policy expectations and political crisis in France 1978-2012 (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mse:cesdoc:14023

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