The French Colonial Service and the Issues of Reform, 1944–8

1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
James I. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
French Empire ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Pressure Groups ◽  
Colonial Policy ◽  
Fourth Republic ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
Post War ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Intellectual Elites

The problems of decolonisation in post-Second World War France have attracted renewed attention in recent years. A new generation of historians and political scientists has focused on why it was so difficult for the country's political and intellectual élites to accept the end of empire. This attention to the subjectivity of policy and opinion-makers has added a novel dimension to understanding how and why the end of the colonial era occurred with such difficulty and bloodshed for the French. This new orientation has largely displaced the old ‘Gaullist’ explanation for the failing of France's post-war regime, the Fourth Republic, in colonial policy. The older notion, articulated by General Charles de Gaulle himself during his twelve-year exile from political power between 1946 and 1958, blamed the unstable parliamentary coalitions and governing political parties of the era for the series of crises and disasters in colonial policy faced by a deeply fractured legislative regime. The rapid rise and fall of governments, the turnover of ministers, the constant governmental disputes on a range of questions, it was alleged, was the cause of inconsistent and weak policies incapable of meeting the succession of crises. The newer research, however, has demonstrated that the institutional problems of the Fourth Republic were not the key issue and that the essential problem lay with an inability of élites to recognise, accept and adapt to decolonisation worldwide. It has been shown that, far from having inconsistent or weak policies, the governing cadres of the Fourth Republic shared fundamentally similar concepts and goals in their determination to maintain the integrity of the French Empire. Yet this same historiography has focused on the political parties, pressure groups and shifting political landscape of French colonial policy while largely overlooking an important, though less obvious, player.

One Hundred Million Frenchmen: The “Assimilation” Theory in French Colonial Policy

1962 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Deming Lewis
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Assimilation Theory ◽  
World War ◽  
French Empire ◽  
Distant Future ◽  
French Government ◽  
Colonial Policy ◽  
French Colonial

During World War II, Jacques Stern, a former French Minister of Colonies, wrote almost lyrically of the “patient labor of assimilation” by which France had been “consolidating the moral and material ties which bind together forty million continental Frenchmen and sixty million overseas Frenchmen, white and colored” in the French Empire. When the Brazzaville Conference met in 1944 under the auspices of the Free French government to consider the postwar future of that empire, its final resolution declared that the aims of the work of colonization which France is pursuing in her colonies exclude any idea of autonomy and any possibility of development outside the French empire bloc; the attainment of self-government in the colonies even in themost distant future must be excluded.

Towards the Final Legitimation of the Party

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piero Ignazi
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Sole Source ◽  
The Political ◽  
Party Formation ◽  
Post War ◽  
Dominant Influence

Chapter 3 investigates the process of party formation in France, Germany, Great Britain, and Italy, and demonstrates the important role of cultural and societal premises for the development of political parties in the nineteenth century. Particular attention is paid in this context to the conditions in which the two mass parties, socialists and Christian democrats, were established. A larger set of Western European countries included in this analysis is thoroughly scrutinized. Despite discontent among traditional liberal-conservative elites, full endorsement of the political party was achieved at the beginning of the twentieth century. Particular attention is paid to the emergence of the interwar totalitarian party, especially under the guise of Italian and German fascism, when ‘the party’ attained its most dominant influence as the sole source and locus of power. The chapter concludes by suggesting hidden and unaccounted heritages of that experience in post-war politics.

Party and Democracy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piero Ignazi
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Organizational Development ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
The State ◽  
Societal Change ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
Post War ◽  
Totalitarian Regimes

The book integrates philosophical, historical, and empirical analyses in order to highlight the profound roots of the limited legitimation of parties in contemporary society. Political parties’ long attempts to gain legitimacy are analysed from a philosophical–historical perspective pinpointing crucial passages in their theoretical and empirical acceptance. The book illustrates the process through which parties first emerged and then achieved full legitimacy in the early twentieth century. It shows how, paradoxically, their role became absolute in the totalitarian regimes of the interwar period when the party became hyper-powerful. In the post-war period, parties shifted from a golden age of positive reception and organizational development towards a more difficult relationship with society as it moved into post-industrialism. Parties were unable to master societal change and favoured the state to recover resources they were no longer able to extract from their constituencies. Parties have become richer and more powerful, but they have ‘paid’ for their pervasive presence in society and the state with a declining legitimacy. The party today is caught in a dramatic contradiction. It has become a sort of Leviathan with clay feet: very powerful thanks to the resources it gets from the state and to its control of societal and state spheres due to an extension of clientelistic and patronage practices; but very weak in terms of legitimacy and confidence in the eyes of the mass public. However, it is argued that there is still no alternative to the party, and some hypotheses to enhance party democracy are advanced.

The 1972 Elections

1973 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
H. G. Nicholas
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
The Public ◽  
Pressure Groups ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
American Elections ◽  
To Come

Elections satisfy both the practical and the theoretical requirements of classical democratic theory if they answer one question only: Who shall rule? Judged by this test the American elections of 7 November 1972 returned as clear and unequivocal an answer as the United States Constitution permits – crystal-clear as to individuals, equivocal as to parties and political forces. But the student of politics and society cannot resist treating elections as data-gathering devices on a wide range of other questions, on the state of the public mind, on the relative potency of pressure groups, on the internal health of the political parties, and, of course, on the shape of things to come. In this ancillary role American elections, despite the generous wealth of statistical material which they throw up – so much more detailed and categorized (though often less precise) than our own – Suffer in most years from one severe limitation, a limitation which in 1972 was particularly conspicuous; they do not engage the interest of more than a moderate percentage of the American citizenry. In 1972 that percentage was as low as 55 per cent, i.e. out of an estimated eligible population of 139,642,000 only 77,000,000 went to the polls. Since this circumscribes the conclusions which can be drawn from the results themselves, as well as constituting a phenomenon of considerable intrinsic interest, it seems worthwhile to begin any examination of the 1972 elections by an analysis not of the votes counted but of those which were never cast.

REPUBLICANISM, RAILWAY IMPERIALISM, AND THE FRENCH EMPIRE IN AFRICA, 1879–1889

2011 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. W. ROBERTS
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Africa ◽  
French Empire ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Pressure Groups ◽  
The Road ◽  
Imperial Expansion ◽  
On The Road ◽  
Economic Boom

ABSTRACTThis article questions accepted views of French expansion as a largely autonomous process, reflecting new attitudes towards Africa among policy-makers. It argues that the African railway schemes of 1879 were the outcome of an understanding between powerful railway interests and mainstream elements of the newly victorious republican parties. The ambitions of the railway companies were restricted in scope, however, being confined mainly to existing French possessions, while their sponsorship of imperial expansion was little more than a tactical expedient. It was only when the opportunities created for expansion were taken up by locally based pressure-groups or became caught up in international rivalries that empire began to take root in the Soudan and the Congo. By the time the anti-colonial reaction of the mid-1880s took hold, railway imperialism, a product of the short-lived economic boom, had already run its course. Government now had an opportunity and an incentive to put its imperial house in order. Nevertheless, the resulting equilibrium remained vulnerable to a re-emergence of the forces that had first set France on the road to empire in tropical Africa.

scholarly journals Lessons from Sweden: How Australia Can Learn from Swedish Industrialised Building

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan William Maxwell ◽  
Mathew Aitchison
Keyword(s):  
High Standard ◽  
Building Industry ◽  
Construction Costs ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Building Systems ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Efficiency And Productivity ◽  
Living Cost

Over the past decade, Australia has witnessed increased interest in industrialised building, particularly in the production of housing. This has happened under many different banners, including: prefabricated, modular, transportable and offsite construction methodologies. This interest has grown from a combination of factors, including: increased rate of housing construction and density; rising property and construction costs; the desire for increased efficiency and productivity; and a concern for the quality and sustainability of building systems. Historically, Australia has played an episodic role in the emergence of prefab and transportable buildings since the colonial era, but it does not have a longstanding industrialised building industry. In this context, an analysis of the experiences of North American, European and Japanese examples, provides valuable insights. This paper focuses on Swedenäó»s approach to industrialised building and the lessons it holds for the emerging Australian sector. Sweden represents a valuable case study because of similarities between the two countries, including: the high standard of living, cost of labour, and design and quality expectations; along with geographic and demographic similarities. Conversely, stark differences between the national situation also co-exist, notably climate, business approaches, political outlook, and cultural factors. In the 1950s, Swedish companies exported prefab houses to Australia to combat the Post-War housing shortage, which also supplies a historical dimension to the comparison. Most importantly, Sweden boasts a longstanding industrialised building industry, both in terms of practice and theory. This paper will survey and compare the Swedish industry, and its potential relevance for Australia. Areas of discussion include: the relationship between industry and academy (practice and theory); the diversity of technique and methodologies and how they may be adapted; platform thinking (technical and operational); the staged industrialisation of conventional practices; and the importance of a socially, environmental and design-led practice of building.

Lasting Political Structures

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isser Woloch
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Military Conscription ◽  
Political Structures ◽  
Post War ◽  
Administrative Structures ◽  
Looking Back

This chapter uses the 1940s—the Resistance, the Liberation, the post-war moment—as a vantage point for looking back at the French Revolution’s projects of representative democracy, decentralization, and recentralization. Among other things it considers the initial re-division of the national territory, changing administrative structures, the uses of elections, the strictures against political parties, and the permutations on these matters across successive post-revolutionary regimes. A final section offers a more conventional chronological account, from 1789 onward, of one of the Revolution’s most consequential innovations: systematic military conscription.

ower and satisfaction analysis : An application to the Belgian House of Representatives

Res Publica ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 649-661
Author(s):  
Luc Lauwers ◽  
Patrick Uytterhoeven
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
The Other ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Post War ◽  
Participation Index ◽  
Satisfaction Analysis

Using post-war election results for the Belgian House of Representatives, the power relations among political parties are analysed by calculating power- and satisfaction indices. Also, a participation index has been constructed to calculate the probability that a party will join a government coalition.Since the election of 1981 the traditional parties ( christian-democrats, socialists and liberals) join the same Banzhof power and participation probability. The other parties represent no power and participation valueat all.

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