A core text for undergraduates studying the political institutions of contemporary France. It provides an accessible introduction to the government and politics of France by focusing on the institutions of the Fifth Republic. It contains key information about the legal and constitutional powers of the country's political institutions and party system, about the procedures and practices of the decision-making process and about the general development of the political system since 1958.

Examining the nature of the Fifth Republic after its first 42 years, this study looks at the challenges posed by new parties and new expressions of political mobilization.

The institution of the Prime Minister in France remains remarkably understudied. There are many personalised accounts of the work of individual Prime Ministers and their relations with Presidents and government ministers. However, there has been no rigorous attempt to analyse the Prime Minister's overall influence in the decision-making process. The aim of this book is to examine the contemporary role of the Prime Minister in the French political system. By so doing, it provides a systematic analysis of the Prime Minister's influence over the policy-making process from 1981 to 1991.

This book is a study of power. In particular, it is a study of governmental power in Britain and France. Its focus is the changing relationship between the government and the central bank in the two countries, and it examines the politics of this relationship since the time when the Bank of England and the Bank of France were first created.
The book begins by considering the issue of governmental control generally. It then focuses on monetary policy making, and asks what has been the role of governments in this area and what freedom have central banks enjoyed? After a detailed historical...