Alistair Cole - Francois Mitterrand: A Study in Political Leadership

A study in political leadership

Alistair Cole

First published 1994
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Transferred to Digital Printing 2004

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

1994 Alistair Cole

Typeset in Garamond by
PontingGreen Publishing Services, Chesham, Bucks

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Cole, Alistair, 1959

Franois Mitterrand : a study in political leadership / Alistair Cole.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-415-07159-3

1. Mitterrand, Franois, 1916 Political and social views. 2. France Politics and government 1981 3. Presidents FranceBiography. 4. SocialismFranceHistory20th century. 5. Political leadershipFranceHistory20th century. I.Title.

DC423.C63 1994

944.0838092dc20

[B] 9328183
CIP

ISBN 0415071593
ISBN 0415163366

CDS Centre des dmocrates Sociaux

CDU German Christian Democratic Union

CERES Centre dEtudes et de recherches socialistes

CFDT Confdration franaise dmocratique du travail

CGT Confdration gnrale du travail

CIR Convention des institutions rpublicaines

CSCE Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe

DOM-TOM Dpartements doutre-mer/ Territoires doutre mer (Overseas departments and territories).

EC European Community

EFTA European Free Trade Association

EMS European Monetary System

ENA Ecole National dAdministration

EPU European Political Union

ERM Exchange Rate Mechanism

ESPRIT European Strategic Programme for Research and Development in Information Technology

EUREKA European Programme for High Technology Research and Development

EUT European Union Treaty

FGDS Fdration de la Gauche dmocratique et socialiste

FN Front national

FRG Federal Republic of Germany

GATT General Agreement on Trades and Tariffs

GNP Gross National Product

IGC Intergovernmental Conference

LCR Ligue pour le combat rpublicain

MRP Mouvement rpublicain populaire

NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

PSA Parti socialiste autonome

PSU Parti socialiste unifi

PCF Parti communiste franais

PS Parti socialiste

RDA Rassemblement africain

RPF Rassemblement du peuple franais

RPR Rassemblement pour la Rpublique

SFIO Section franaise de linternationale ouvrire

SGE Secrtariat gnrale de lElyse

SGDN Secrtariat gnrale de la dfense nationale

SGCI Secrtariat gnrale du Comit interministrielle

SPD German Social-democratic

UCRG Union des clubs pour le renouveau de la gauche

UDC Union du centre

UDF Union la dmocratie franaise

UDSR Union dmocratique et socialiste de la rsistance

UGCS Union de la Gauche des clubs socialistes

UN United Nations

UNR Union pour la nouvelle Rpublique

WEU West European Union

As the order in the title suggests, this book is intended first and foremost as a study of Franois Mitterrand, with special (but not exclusive) reference to the Mitterrand presidency. It is also aimed to contribute towards the study of political leadership. Through evaluating Mitterrands political persona, and his activities as a politician spanning the entire postwar period, I hope to be able to draw wider conclusions pertaining to the French polity. Quite apart from being an object of individual fascination, Mitterrand is treated as a vehicle for examining various aspects of the French political system. These include: types and styles of political leadership, the party system, the organisation of the French executive, byzantine governing methods, the role of networks and patronage, continuity and change in French foreign and European policy, etc.

This portrayal of Mitterrand attempts to combine a chronological outline with extensive thematic analysis. Various objections can be levelled against adopting primarily a chronological approach. We run the risk of presenting the subjects career as a neat, uninterrupted progression of interlocking episodes, following logically one from another. This idea of linear progression underpins most biographical life-stories. The key danger here is that of retrospection: through dividing the subjects life into a series of compact episodes, the author invariably places too great a cohesion upon his or her activity. It is far from certain that the subject actually lived those episodes with the cohesion usually accredited to him or her by the author.

An obvious alternative to the episode-based study is one which concentrates upon the varying roles performed by an individual within the political system_ the party leader, the head of government, the European statesman and so on. This approach has the advantage of portraying political activity as multifaceted, but itself suffers from several disadvantages, especially if it implies too strict a demarcation between the various roles performed by a political leader. Indeed, the methodological objections to a chronological treatment are less pervasive, but not absent from a more thematic-based approach: the writer continues to exercise his own judgement in deciding which themes are primordial, and in attributing an element of cohesion where none may originally have existed.

The selection of events themselves is to some extent a subjective exercise; why is one event, theme or policy brought to the attention of the reader, and not another? It is probably inevitable that, for certain readers, insufficient attention will have been paid to important events and themes which figure prominently in other works as major staging-posts of Mitterrands career. I decided, for example, that the constraints of space, and the existence of various policy-based studies of the Mitterrand presidency precluded a more detailed analysis of the policy record of the 198193 governments. Other omissions might appear less defensible: little attention is paid to Mitterrands media personality, for instance, in spite of the obvious importance of mass media in projecting political images and reinforcing the personalisation of the Fifth Republican political system. Detailed consideration of this subject has been sacrificed to word-limit constraints, and the fact that it has been treated elsewhere. As a general point, the themes dealt with in this book re-emerge throughout Mitterrands long political career. They are intended to highlight the consistencies which underpin the career of a remarkable survivor. The dangers of the selectivity exercise are real, but this should not preclude the enterprise altogether.

I would like to thank those French politicians and civil servants who took time out of their busy schedules to agree to an interview. I offer my understanding and condolences to the legion of Socialist politicians who were too busy fighting for their own political survival to agree to my request for an interview. Among the many French and British sources of inspiration and assistance, I should particularly like to thank Martin Harrison and Peter Morris, both of whom read the manuscript with a keen critical sense and whose comments were welcomed. Finally, I am grateful to the Nuffield Foundation for their generous financial assistance, and to Keele University: without their combined financial and logistical support, this book would have been far more difficult to write.