1. Political Culture, Political Recruitment and Political Socialization
FRANCE
Political Culture, Political Recruitment and Political Socialization

3. Some Relevant History One of the oldest nation-states of Europe
French Revolution began with the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in (the First Republic)
Three more constitutions
Napoleon
Restoration of Bourbons
House of Orleans
Paris Revolution in 1848

4. More: The Historical Perspective
Second Republic ( )
Universal male suffrage
Napoleon III
Franco Prussian War
Third Republic (1871)
WWII deeply divided France
Charles de Gaulle
Fourth Republic ( )
24 governments in 12 years
Fifth Republic (1958 onward)

5. Political Culture: Conceptual Review
Levels of political culture
System
Process
Policy
Public attitudes toward politics and their role in the political system
Parochial
Subject
Partipatory

6. French Political Culture: Themes
“Burden of history”
Versailles
“Enlightened” monarchs allowed relatively free through – as long as it remained abstract
Concept of being “French”unites
Specifics of what that means divides

7. Shape of Political Trust
Conflicting orientations arising from valuation of individualism and equality
Participation in politics initially seen as means of weakening strong government
Assertion of individualism sometimes led to anarchy

8. Religious and anti-religious Traditions
Roman Catholics vs. Huguenots
Anti-clerical sub-culture
Church teaching less authoritative in Catholic sub-culture

9. Other Religious traditions Antireligious Traditions
French Jews
“de-christianized” & secular culture
Revolution of 1789
Impact of World War II
Muslims
New immigation

10. Defense Against Anarchy
Place individuals who reflected he popular will in power
Individuals who reflect popular will use government to bring about equality
Allows for the accommodation to large role for the bureaucracy

11. History and the Process of Change
Sudden change – rather than gradual mutation have dominated critical moments in French history
Leads to conclusion that no change can be brought about except by major upheaval
Lead to skepticism about the possibility of meaningful change

12. Between the French Revolution and the Fifth Republic Rules of the Political Regime in France were satisfactory to only one segment of the polity - and hotly contested by others

13. Fifth Republic
Early years political culture resembled the situation that prevailed between 1789 and 1958
Election of Francois Mitterrand to presidency (1981)
aid to rest two hundred years of hostility among French political elites
Attitudes and orientations of masses followed developments among the elites

14. Political Socialization: Family
Traditionally conservative
Modifications to traditional patriarchal structure
Associations as tools of political socializations

15. Political Socialization: Education
Historic importance of baccalauret and lycee
Changes in the Fifth Republic
700,000 graduates in 1945
6.1 million in1994
Universities
48% in higher education during 1990’s
Comparable to rest of W. Europe

16. Grandes Ecole Functions outside of regular system of universities
Highly selective- no increase in enrollment
Training ground of highly specialized elites

17. Socialization and Mass Communication: Print Media
For much of 20th century major newspapers were in the hands of business tycoons or political parties
Currently: most papers owned by business conglomerates

18. Television State ownership from 1945 – 1981
Television and radio opened to private sector in a project of the Socialists
State television forced to provide the opposition with time to reply to the government
Only two of six non-cable channels owned by government

19. Elite Political Recruitment
Grandes écoles
higher education establishments outside the mainstream framework of the public universities system.
selection criteria of grandes écoles rests mainly on competitive written and oral exams
Fifth Republic – more senior civil servants from the professionals class than during the Fourth Republic

20. grandes écoles Corps
Recruited from Ecole Nationale d’Administration & Ecole Polytechnique
Elite political class numbers less than 20, 000
Grand Corps now important in recruitment of business elites
École Nationale d'administration
created in 1945 by Charles de Gaulle to democratize access to the senior civil service.

21. Importance of Gender
Low representation of women among French political elites
Political advancement requires deep investment in parties
Segolene Royal
Graduate of the ENA
Member of the Council of State
Dearth of women’s representation recognized but not addressed

22. Outsiders have extreme difficulty in penetrating the French political and business elite