ABSTRACT
The succession of political regimes in France offers many opportunities for investigating the relationship between democratic stability and political institutions. The period of democratic stability under the Fifth Republic contrasts sharply with the twenty-five different governments and political tumult of the Fourth Republic. The primacy of the presidential office and the consequent importance of presidential elections have conditioned the way political parties have developed as representative organizations. Under the impetus of modernizing elites such as Jean Monnet and Pierre Mendes-France, the French state fueled an industrialization and urbanization drive beginning in 1945 that was to last thirty years and to profoundly alter the face of the French economy and society. For Stanley Hoffman, "France required an increase in the intensity of state authority to match the extension of its scope and the size of the challenge."
