Book Review: French Politics
| Author | S. Mack Eastman |
| Date | 01 June 1955 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205501000207 |
| Published date | 01 June 1955 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
FRENCH
POLITIcS-The
First
Years
of
the
Fourth
Republic.
By
Dorothy
Pickles.
1953.
(London,
Toronto:
Oxford.
302pp.)
To
students
of French
affairs
Mrs.
Pickles'
new
book
offers
an
extraordinarily
able,
thorough
and
admirably
objective outline
and
analysis of
France's
political experience,
economic
difficulties
and
external
relations
from
"Liberation"
up
to
about
two
years
ago.
It
overlaps
slightly
with
Gordon
Wright's
earlier
volume
reviewed
in
International
Journal
of
1948-9.
As
the
author
says
in
her
preface:
"This
book
aims
primarily
at
presenting
events
and
problems
as
the
French
saw
them
at
the
time
and,
more
particularly,
as
they
disagreed about
them
;"
and,
toward
the
end:
"The
contrast
with Great
Britain
has
been
stressed,
because
Anglo-French
co-operation
is
the
corner-stone
of
post-war
European
policies,
and
because
this
difference
has
been
perhaps
the
greatest
stumbling
block
to
understanding
be-
tween
the
two
countries."
The
most
conspicuous
political
difference
lies
between
the
two-party parliamentary
system
of
Britain
and
the
multiparty
mechanism of
France,
engendered
by
historical pressures
be-
ginning with
the
Great
Revolution.
The
parties
in
the
Assembly
are
not
artificial
concoctions
but
the
faithful
reflection
of
deep-
rooted
divisions in
public opinion
on
matters
of
principle-
political,
religious,
economic
and
social.
Hence
the
frequent
deadlocks
within
coalition
governments
and
the
recurring
cabinet
reshuffles
with
only
slight
change
of
personalities.
The
basic
problem
is
one
of
majorities,
soluble
only
if
somehow
one
party
were
to
secure
an
overall
majority
(as
in
the
Canadian
House
of
Commons).
After
the
glad
liberation,
men
had
visions
of
a
renovated
France,
and
the
Leftward
government
(Communists,
Socialists,
MRP)
launched
sweeping
economic
and
social
programmes
for
nationalization
and
state
planning. Unhappily
the
innate
contra-
C
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