The French Party System - Washington State University

Chicago – August 2007
APSA – short course
The French Party System: 1958 – 2007
Nicolas Sauger
CEVIPOF (Sciences Po – CNRS)
1. Introduction: bipolarization and its limits
The principal dynamic of the French party system under the Fifth Republic has been that of the socalled ‘bipolar quadrille’. By the end of the 1970s, four parties of approximately equal strength
were monopolising over 90 per cent of the vote in their respective Left and Right blocs (Parodi,
1989). France has been considered for a long time as an ideal-type of a bipolarized party system.
Bipolarization is defined in Sartori’s (1976) terms as a type of limited pluralism, organised into two
stable coalitions, with polarized party positions but a centripetal direction of competition.
Recent developments and academic contributions have questioned this classical categorization,
most notably with the two theses of the ‘tripartition’ (Grunberg and Schweisguth 1997) and of
‘bipartisme’ (Haegel and Grunberg 2007)
This paper questions this characterisation of the French party system on the long run, throughout
the Fifth Republic, and reviews the main explanations given to such a kind of structures of political
competition.
2. Structures of electoral competition in France
€
Fragmentation and dominance
€
Cleavages and the dimensionality of the policy space
€
Patterns of government formation
€
Stability and change in the French party system
3. Sociological and institutional approaches of the French party system
€
Maurice Duverger’s legacy: the two round electoral system and its consequences
€
George Lavau’s critique: what about the "réalités sociales"?
€
The presidentialization of the party system
4. Conclusion: the three cycles of the French party system since 1958
Illustrations:
Table 1: Presidential elections results (percentage of votes)
Radical
left
PCF
PS
Other left
Greens
UDF Centre
Gaullist
1965
-
1969
1,06%
1974
2,7% 1
1981
3,41% 1
1988
2,37% 1
1995
5,30%
2002
10,44% 1
2007
7,07% 1
31,72% 2
1,71%
15,57%
21,17%
5,01%
3,61%
22,31%2
43,25% 2
0,69%
1,32%
32,60% 2
15,35%
25,85% 2
2,21%
3,88%
28,32% 2
8,86% 1
34,11% 2
3,78%
16,54%
8,64%
23,3% 2
3,32%
-
3,37%
16,18%
7,65% 1
7,13% 1
11,94% 1
1,93%
25,87% 2
1,57%
18,57%
44,65% 2
44,47%2
18,28% 1
20,99% 1
19,96% 2
39,42% 1,
19,88% 2
31,18% 2
2
Extreme
6,35% 1
1,27%
right
Effective
3,09
3,35
number of
candidates
1
More than one candidate
2
Second round candidate
1,16% 1
-
14,38%
20,02% 1
19,2% 1,2
12,67% 1
3,13
4,88
4,77
5,97
8,63
4,70
Graph 1: Fragmentation of the party system (effective number of parties for legislative elections)
8,00
7,00
6,00
5,00
4,00
3,00
2,00
1,00
2006
2003
2000
1997
1994
1991
1988
1985
1982
1979
1976
1973
1970
1967
1964
1961
1958
0,00
Graph 2: Competition in constituencies: average of the scores of the top two parties across districts for the first
round of legislative elections (Nagayama triangle technique)
50
45
1981
1988
40
35
2007
30
25
1997
20
1968
15
1993
10
1958
5
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Table 2: Legislative elections results (percentage of votes)
1958
1962
1967
Radical left
1,2%
2%
2,2%
PCF
18,9%
21,9%
22,5%
PS
15,5%
12,4%
18,9%
Other left
5,8%
5%
Greens
Centre
15%
10,4%
22,9% 2
UDF
20% 2
13,8% 2
Moderates
Gaullist
20,6% 2 33,7% 2 33% 2
Extreme right
2,6%
0,8%
0,6%
Effective
7,29
5,38
4,79
number
of
party
4,85
3,51
3,71
Effective
number
of
parliamentary
party
Effective
4,14
3,35
3,27
number
of
party
per
constituency
2
Part of the new government coalition
1968
4%
20%
16,9%
1973
3,2%
21,4%
21,2%
1978
3,3%
20,6%
26,3%
1981
1,2%
16,1% 2
38,3% 2
1986
1,5%
9,7%
32,8%
1988
0,4%
11,2%
37,6% 2
1993
1,7%
9,1%
20,2%
1997
2,6%
9,9% 2
27,9% 2
2002
2,74%
4,91%
26,67%
2007
3,44%
4,62%
27,67%
20,5% 2
27,82
2%
23,9% 2
1,1%
42,9%
1,2%
44,6% 2
0,4%
40,5%
11%
44,1% 2
6,9% 2
36,2%
4,44%
5,52%
3,25%
7,76%
45,52% 2
38% 2
0,1%
4,42
24,6% 2
0,5%
6,04
22,8% 2
0,8%
4,96
0,3%
4,08
9,9%
4,64
9,9%
4,39
12,9%
6,84
15,3%
7,01
38,35% 2
12,2%
5,15
4,7%
3,37
2,49
4,42
4,08
2,54
3,76
3,23
2,87
3,42
2,16
2,29
3,06
3,78
3,75
2,82
3,48
3,02
4,3
4,45
3,93
3,74
Graphs 3 and 4: Presidential candidates positions in France (2002 and 2007) using Wordscores technique
2002
2007
20
20,00
Le Pen
18
19
LE PEN
16
17
Sarkozy
Villiers
13
Laguiller
Universalism
12
St. Josse
Mamère
11
Le Page
Chevènement
10
Hue
9
Bayrou
Taubira
Madelin
CHIRAC
8
Internationalism
14
15
15,00
Bayrou
10,00
Buffet
6
7
Voynet
Laguiller
Jospin
Royal
3
4
5
5,00
1
2
Besancenot
0,00
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Socioeconomic
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
0,00
5,00
10,00
15,00
20,00
Socio-eco
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