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The French National Assembly Elections of 1978, edited by Howard R. Penniman, analyzes the elections that were widely expected to bring the left to power in France. Instead they gave the center-right coalition-which in one guise or another has ruled France since the creation of the Fifth Republic-a slim lead in the popular vote and a decisive majority in the National Assembly. The Socialists and Communists, vying for predominance on the left, were unable to reach a stable agreement on the terms of their alliance; they also suffered from the polarization of French politics, which the Gaullists have encouraged through changes in the electoral system. Forced to choose between the center-right and a left that included a strong Communist party still committed to the radical transformation of French society, the electorate came down on the side of the status quo.
The contributors to this volume are Roy Pierce, writing on the history of legislative elections in France; Jerome Jaffre on the electorate; Georges Lavau, Janine Mossuz-Lavau, and Jean Charlot on the campaigns and prospects of the major party groupings; Roland Cayrol on the media in the campaign; and Monica Charlot on women in politics. In a concluding chapter Jeane J. Kirkpatrick describes the underlying patterns of partisanship in post-Gaullist France, and detailed electoral returns are provided in an appendix compiled by Richard M. Scammon.
Howard R. Penniman is professor of government at Georgetown University, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and an election consultant to the American Broadcasting Company. He is the author of several books on government and politics in the United States as well as the editor of a number of volumes in this series of election studies.
