France Votes: The Election of François Hollande The Election of François Hollande

France Votes analyzes the French elections of 2012 in the context of a France and Europe in crisis. With regard to the economy, Irwin Wall describes the ways in which the country's adherence to the common currency in the Eurozone has stripped France of its freedom of manouver. France Votes shows how a European-wide economic crisis was reflected in political crisis at home and the rise of new political extremism combined with mass disaffection from politics altogether. The result of all of this, posits Wall, is that France has become a no-choice democracy.

Table of Contents Introduction: France and the European Union at a Turning Point 1. The Crisis of the European Union; the Crisis of the Euro; France and the EU 2. France of the Fifth Republic; The Parties and the Electoral System; The Presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy; The Campaign and the Elections; The Dimensions of the Socialist Victory. 3. The Peculiarities of the Victory; American Innovations, Party Primaries and The First Ladies; Women in French Politics; The Personal and the Political; Powerful Women For and Against François Hollande; Hollande's Huge Majority With a Party in the Minority 4. French Democracy in Crisis; The National Front; Old and New Cleavages in the Body Politic; Europe Divides the Parties; The Defection of the Electorate; Is French Democracy in Question? 5. The Hollande Government in Action: Is France After All a 'No-Choice' Democracy? Conclusion: Whither France and the EU

Irwin Wall is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Riverside and currently a Visiting Scholar at New York University, USA.