ABSTRACT
There were numerous political surprises in store for anyone who witnessed the recent events in France, especially that intensive and extensive of French election campaigns. Many hundreds of thousands of peasant fanners and agricultural laborers have flocked to the towns and factories in recent years. The number of French women who have to work in order to procure the now-familiar range of household appliances is larger than in other Western countries. Research into the living standards of the new French middle class is lacking, but some pointers can be found in perhaps the best political book to be published recently: Le systeme Pompidou by the socialist Gilles Martinet. Research into the living standards of the new French middle class is lacking, but some pointers can be found in perhaps the best political book to be published recently: Le systeme Pompidou by the socialist Gilles Martinet. Grand ideological controversies count for less than "pesanteurs sociologiques" or the social forces of gravity.
