Raymond Kuhn

Where's the Spin? The Executive and News Management in France

This article examines news management by the French executive. With examples taken mainly from the Chirac presidency, it argues that the French executive has been influenced by the trend towards greater professionalisation of political communication in recent years and that its capacity to act as a ‘primary definer’ for the news media is significant. Nonetheless, the fragmentation of the core authorities, a certain bureaucratic resistance to public communication activities and a less deferential journalistic culture than in the past undermine the applicability of a ‘command and control’ model to news management in the contemporary era.

Mister Unpopular: François Hollande and the Exercise of Presidential Leadership, 2012–14

This article examines the first two years of François Hollandes presidential term from a leadership perspective. The central argument is that while Hollande has sometimes been unlucky in the face of unanticipated events and severely constrained by contextual factors outside of his control, notably Frances low levels of economic growth, he has also displayed a lack of certain essential leadership qualities. He failed to grasp the scale of the economic situation in the early months of his tenure and so lost precious time in fully addressing the need for structural reforms and engaging in a persuasive pedagogic narrative. In addition, his public communication—an essential leadership quality in the era of mediatised politics—has been poor. Hollandes attempt to relaunch his presidential leadership following the disastrous set of mid-term election results in 2014 marks the start of a new phase in his tenure of the office.

Introduction: Political Communication in the Fifth Republic

There are four main reasons to study political communication in the Fifth Republic. The first relates to the extensive reach and social intrusiveness of the media. Like their counterparts in other advanced democracies, French voters mostly learn about political events and issues—whether local, regional, national, supranational or global—via the news media of press, broadcasting and the Internet. Since 1958 a highly developed and complex media system has evolved in France. While the newspaper sector may have contracted in terms of number of titles and overall circulation figures, by the same criteria the magazine sector has hugely expanded. Growth has been particularly evident in broadcasting as a result of public policy decisions taken in the 1980s to open up radio and television to private competition and the subsequent entry into these markets of new suppliers of programming. More recently, the technological shift from analogue to digital has allowed for a significant increase in the number of radio stations and television channels, including rolling news networks. Meanwhile the Internet has joined the established media to serve as an additional site and vehicle of political communication. While especially useful for marginal groups, the Internet is also utilised by traditional political actors for both one-way information provision and two-way interactive communication with voters. All in all, there is now an extensive supply of political information made available via the different news media in France.

Government and broadcasting in France: The resumption of normal service?

Textbooks on French politics frequently describe the state broadcasting services in France as being controlled by the Government. Is this description still applicable to the reorganised broadcasting structure introduced by President Giscard dEstaing in 1974? This article examines four areas of control: the legislative framework, finance, appointments and news programming. It concludes that, though subject to less direct ministerial interference on a daily basis, the new broadcasting companies nonetheless remain susceptible to a wide range of Government controls.

THE FRENCH MUNICIPAL AND EUROPEAN ELECTIONS, 2014

This article examines the 2014 French municipal and European elections, which were effectively mid-term contests for President François Hollande and the Socialist Party, held in the context of a poor economic situation and low levels of popularity for the president and his government. The municipal election was won by the main opposition party, the UMP, while the extreme right Front National emerged as the leading party in the European contest. The Socialists were heavily defeated in both elections. In the wake of these contests both the Socialists and the UMP are facing significant problems (leadership, strategy and voter confidence), while the FN has strengthened its position as a significant third force in party competition.

The Media and the 2012 Presidential Election

This article analyses and evaluates key aspects of media coverage of the 2012 presidential election in a framework that allows for selective comparison with the first direct election of the president of the Fifth Republic in 1965. The article covers: the huge expansion in media supply accompanied by notable changes in consumption patterns by audiences; the enormous growth and increased influence of opinion polling; the professionalisation of election campaigning, particularly by the so-called ‘serious’ candidates; the institution of electoral primaries; the rule-bound nature of the campaign, including specific regulations governing coverage by the broadcasting media; and the head-to-head television debate between the two leading candidates prior to the decisive second round. While much has changed in the political communication landscape between 1965 and 2012, the impact of the media on the campaign and on voters continues to raise searching questions.

The Hollande Presidency, 2012–14

This special issue is dedicated to the memory of David Goldey, Emeritus Fellow of Lincoln College, University of Oxford, who died on 25 July 2014 as this volume was about to go to press. A specialist in European and American politics, David possessed above all a long-standing expertise in the history and politics of France. We were delighted that he was willing to chair one of the sessions at the 2013 conference on the Hollande presidency (see Acknowledgements) and very grateful that he agreed to organise the pre-conference dinner at his college. David was a man who possessed a keen intelligence, breadth of knowledge and passion for French politics. Among many of the qualities that we shall miss are his insight, support, companionship, tolerance and good sense of humour. Adieu, cher collègue et cher ami.

The French regional and European elections, 2004

Apart from the 2005 referendum on the EU constitution, the 2004 regional and European elections were the main nationwide soundings of public opinion to take place in France between the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2002 and 2007. These second-order elections served, therefore, as an important mid-term test of popularity, both directly for a wide spectrum of political parties and indirectly for the conservative government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin which had come into office following the re-election of President Jacques Chirac in May 2002 (Gaffney, 2004). The results of both contests represented a clear victory for the left in general and the Socialist party in particular, most spectacularly demonstrated by a virtual cleansweep in the control of regional councils. The main governmental party, the Union for a Popular Movement/L/zi/on pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), suffered a huge defeat in the regional election and did badly in the European contest as well, while in both elections the Union for French Democracy/l/n/b/i pour la Democratie Franca ise(UDF) demonstrated that it could offer voters a viable centre-right alternative to the UMP. The National Front did reasonably well in terms of votes in the regional election (though much less well in the allocation of council seats), but in the European contest its share of the vote fell below ten per cent. Finally, the extreme left, despite a unity pact between the previously internecine rivals of Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire and Lutte Ouvriere, failed to capitalise on the widespread unpopularity of the Raffarin government, and in particular, to repeat the success of their candidates in the first round of the 2002 presidential election.

Hit the Road, Jacques…

In predictable fashion, the long run-up to the 2007 presidential election saw the publication of a host of books related to France’s political situation, from analyses of the apparent failures of the ‘French model’ to biographies of the two main contenders for the Élysée. Bookshelves groaned as tomes on how to reverse France’s socioeconomic decline jostled for space with intimate portrayals of the political careers and personal lives of Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal. Although all these books looked