France in the Hollande Presidency The Unhappy Republic

Through an analysis of the first half of François Hollande's five-year presidential term, this study examines the strengths and weaknesses of presidential politics following the Left's return to power in 2012 and puts forward an interpretation of the underlying nature of contemporary French politics, and the Fifth Republic itself. The analysis demonstrates that the Fifth Republic is dysfunctional, because of the manner in which political observers and actors have understood or failed to understand this singular republic and its performative requirements. The book examines how François Hollande, as President, acted 'out of category', and what the first half of the five-year term – up until the creation of the Valls government, the European Elections, the publication of Valérie Trierweiler's book in 2014, and the return to frontline politics of Nicolas Sarkozy – tells us about the nature of the Fifth Republic.

John Gaffney is Professor of Politics at Aston University, Birmingham, UK

Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
PART I: UNDERSTANDING THE FRENCH PRESIDENCY
1. Revealing the Republic
2. Scandals, Trivia, and 'Opinion'
PART II: THE NORMAL PRESIDENT v. THE HYPER-PRESIDENT: SELF-DEFINITION AS ANTITHESIS
3. The New President
4. The Accidental Candidate
5. Presidential Character
PART III: FROM THE GAULLIST SETTLEMENT TO CELEBRITY POLITICS
6. The Settlement
7. Path Dependence and the Evolution of the Fifth Republic
8. Personal Leadership and the Republic
9. Leadership, Institutions, and Culture
10. The Conditions and Characteristics of Fifth Republic Leadership
11. Character Traits
PART IV: THE FIRST YEAR. THE NORMAL PRESIDENT AND TIME
12. International President Normal: The First Clues
13. 'Normalism' and Presidentialism
14. A Normal President's Constituency
15. Normal as Moral
16. Valériegate and the Presidency
17. Changing the Tempo; Scrambling the Signifiers
18. The Cahuzac Scandal
19. Gay Marriage and La France Profonde
PART V: THE SECOND YEAR. PRESIDENTIAL CHARACTER UNDER SIEGE
20. France and Syria: Hollande v. Assad
21. Closergate
22. The Municipal Elections and the Valls Government
23. The European Elections and the Victory of the Front National
24. The Summer of 2014
25. The Right
26. Endgame?
PART VI: CONCLUSION: CHARACTER AND PERFORMANCE IN FRENCH PRESIDENTIALISM
27. 'France' and 'the French'
28. Action, Fortune, and Politics as Saga
29. François Hollande and Presidential Character Traits
30. A Path-Dependent Tree of Traits
31. Celebrity and Privacy
32. The Self and Embodiment
33. The Normal, the Chivalric, and the Sixth Republic
34. Mitterrand and French Socialism
35. François Hollande, Time, and Performance
36. The International and the Domestic in Hollande's Presidency
37. The Presidency and Character
Bibliography
Index