Structure versus accident in the defeat of France’s mainstream Right, April–June 2017

Knapp, A. (2018) Structure versus accident in the defeat of France’s mainstream Right, April–June 2017. Parliamentary Affairs, 71 (3). pp. 558-577. ISSN 1460-2482 doi: 10.1093/pa/gsx044

Abstract/Summary

Widely expected to recapture France’s presidency and win a parliamentary major
ity in the 2017 elections, France’s mainstream Right instead suffered a crushing
 and divisive defeat. A major reason for this was contingent: the selection of a candidate who three months before polling day was placed under investigation 
for embezzling public funds. Other reasons were more structural, in particular 
the progressive dislocation of the bipolar multipartism which had characterised
 France’s party system for over four decades and the resultant strategic divisions 
within the Right. Although broadly chronological, this analysis of the long electoral cycle of 2016–2017 assesses the respective importance of proximate and long-term factors in the Right’s defeat.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/73810
Identification Number/DOI	10.1093/pa/gsx044
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Literature and Languages > Languages and Cultures > French
Publisher	Oxford University Press
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