John Gaffney

The political think‐tanks in the UK and the ministerial cabinets in France

In the United Kingdom, since the electoral victory of the Conservative Party in 1979, the right‐wing think‐tanks, in particular the Centre for Policy Studies, have had direct access to government. In France, the ministerial cabinets have long been a site of interaction between political reflection and policy initiatives. Since 1981, the French left, far from restricting the influence of the cabinets, has used them to enhance its control over the innovation, passage and application of reformist legislation. The comparison of a reformist right and a reformist left governments relationship to the formulation of policy is illustrative of the channels through which political ideas gain currency in representative democracy.

Highly Emotional States: French-US Relations and the Iraq War

Understanding the true nature of the relations between France and the United States is central to an understanding of the diplomatic crisis that broke out between them in 2003 over the War in Iraq. An analysis of the political cultures of France and the US offers considerable explanatory power to this dramatic diplomatic dispute. The inordinately emotional aspects of the Franco-US arguments of 2003 mask the fact that the two countries understand each other little. In the French case, its self-view and related diplomatic comportment in the twentieth century was informed by its relationship to Germany; and from it a range of cultural characteristics emerged, among them: vulnerability, self-regard, a romanticized view of itself, and the personalization of national identity. At the moment France’s response to its cultural heritage was beginning to shift to a different (post-Gaullist) paradigm, the dispute with the US erupted.

The French Fifth Republic as an Opportunity Structure: A Neo‐institutional and Cultural Approach to the Study of Leadership Politics

The Gaullist settlement of 1958 reconfigured the political institutions of France, introducing into the republican mainstream a new form of leadership politics. Adapting the literature on political opportunity structure (POS) theory, and using the French left as a case study, can help us understand how political parties, ideology and leadership adapt to political institutions and norms. It also illuminates what the consequences are of such adaptation in the contemporary period, particularly as regards the institutionally bound roles of political ‘character’, protocol and discourse. The paper appraises the relevance and appropriateness of POS theory to leadership politics in France.

French socialism and the fifth republic

The French Socialist Partys strategic acceptance of presidentialism in the Fifth Republic from 1971 created a relationship within the party which involved its discourse, its organisation, and the treatment of leadership within Socialism. The relationship between these elements changed after 1981 as a result of the partys winning the Presidency and attaining government. In the 1984–86 period, ‘modernisation’ began the adaptation of discourse to the new relationship. The 1987 party congress saw the partial adaptation of organisation. However, the problems encountered in the third area, leadership, after March 1986, demonstrated how problematic the triple relation organisation/discourse/leadership was, and how profound the effects of the Republic have been.

Introduction : the Presidency in the French Fifth Republic

Political leadership is a universal social institution, but is one of the least understood. This book is a study of political leadership using the French case. It is, therefore, a contribution to comparative political leadership studies and to the analysis of French politics (in which, in the view of these authors, leadership politics plays an almost inordinately important role). What follows is a study of the French Fifth Republic from within the field of political leadership research. Our study also deals with a series of problems related to political culture, state resources, party politics and party systems, political power, and the nature of the relationship between politics and myth. This book can be read as a contribution to the study of leadership and of Fifth Republic politics. The individual chapters, moreover, can be taken as distinct contributions to the continuing discussion of each of the Presidents, and their significance for one another, and to issues of governance. Taken together and comparatively, they constitute a presidential topography of the Fifth Republic.

Rhetoric and the Left: Theoretical Considerations

This chapter analyses rhetoric within both the political process and the British left. It considers the relationship between rhetoric and performance: how the left and the Labour Party ‘imagine’ or ‘construct’ themselves and the world, and make claims to their national leadership vocation; and how left political leaders use these ‘imaginings’ and ‘constructions’ to assert their status, influence debate, fashion and communicate policy proposals, and widen their support. Rhetoric’s political effects raise the question of its use and practice and—crucially—its potential. If political rhetoric does not simply move us but moves us to act, or persuades us to shift from one rational or emotional position to another, then this raises questions regarding rhetoric’s relation to ideas and to agency.

Protocol, image, and discourse in political leadership competition: The case of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, 1997-2002

This article examines the relationship between Prime Minister Jospin and President Chirac in the period 1997 to 2002. It is concerned in particular with symbolism, discourse and protocol, and how these have mediated the political competition between Chirac and Jospin. We develop a framework of analysis with several main strands. We consider the effects of the institutions of the Fifth Republic upon the political conduct of Prime Minister and President. We observe the perceived character traits of the individuals concerned, as well as the character traits expected of the offices of President and Prime Minister. We investigate the influence of the past upon the behaviour of Chirac and Jospin in the present, both in terms of notions of regime crisis which configured the institutions in the first place, and in relation to the image of previous holders of the offices (especially Charles de Gaulle and François Mitterrand).

Political Leadership, Rhetoric, and Culture: Aristotle Good, Max Weber Bad

This chapter is the theory chapter, and examines the ‘discursive’ and the ‘imagined’ (the two constitute the architecture and mechanics of persona and performance), and argues that these interact all the time. Their analytical separation will facilitate methodological and conceptual clarity. I adapt the Aristotelian categories of ethos, pathos, and logos to contemporary purpose. I also argue against Weber and the notion of charismatic leadership, and argue that leadership is a performed event that is part of and contributes to a narrative. I suggest a diagram for the understanding of ‘performance’ and its conditions (one of them being narrative itself). The diagram also acts as a template for analysis.

Narrative Collapse and the Teller Without a Tale

This chapter is an analysis of the 2013–2015 period and of the May 2015 General Election from the perspective of the performance of leadership and party, particularly vis-a-vis leadership and the presentation and deployment of policy proposals and the Party Manifesto and, in the examination of the period leading up to the General Election, an appraisal of the performative and rhetorical choices made (and not made). Within the framework of our overall theoretical discussion, this part of the chapter includes analytical comment on the General Election campaign itself. The thrust of this chapter is the analysis of Miliband’s leadership performance during the election campaign and his relationship to public opinion.

Leadership Lessons from the Past

This chapter is an account of leadership developments within the Labour Party, and the way in which party leaders have inflected party thinking and the parameters of its thinking and direction. For much of its hundred years and more of existence, the Labour Party is a case study in the failure to understand the nature, exigencies, and consequences of leadership, both partisan and national. Few party leaders have been particularly successful. I shall therefore examine here what leaders have brought to the party in terms of shaping its leadership narrative and relation to party identity, often unknowingly given the party and the left’s generally problematic attitude and relationship to leadership itself.