ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the right-wing approach to corporatism, with particular emphasis on the recent role of the Gaullists in building support for corporatist ideals. It explores the former by referring to contemporary scholarly literature on the subject, the latter by examining the history of corporatist practice in France prior to the Gaullist takeover in 1958. The chapter presents a study of Gaullist corporatist policy under presidents Charles de Gaulle, Georges Pompidou, and Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Gaullist corporatist politics under the party leadership of former Prime Minister Jacques Chirac. The one condition de Gaulle posed when asked to resume the leadership of France during the Algerian crisis of 1958 was the right to oversee the writing of a new constitution. In the late 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s France experienced "the highest rate of growth (5.8 percent per year) in the world except for Japan and the Soviet Union".
