ABSTRACT
As investigated during this book, the French polity has slowly mutated under the combined impact of internal and external pressures for change. Long a country which exported its model to others – within and beyond Europe – French elites have had to integrate new ideas and practices into their patterns of domestic government. In this final chapter, we provide a series of concluding judgements about continuity and change in contemporary France. The position is a complex one, since there are countervailing pressures at work. The French political system retains features setting it apart from other European nationstates, but also faces a number of common difficulties and challenges which have brought it closer to its European neighbours.
