Responsive to whom? A comparison of the Mitterrand and Hollande presidencies

Abstract

This article was presented during the workshop on electoral coalitions and their analytical implications at the European University Institute, 13-14 June 2016. We would like to thank the participants for their constructive feedback. We would also like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. Of course, any errors remain our own.

The changing face of responsibility: A cross-time comparison of French social democratic governments

“…As already discussed in our and other related studies (Damhuis and Karremans 2017; Huber and Stephens 2015; Gingrich and Häusermann 2015), the restrictive policy attitude emerging from the justifications is for a considerable extent in line with the post-industrial ideological profile of the PS. However, the characteristics of the responsible justifications found in the budget speeches also reveal another side of this same story.…”

“…The former (rows 1.1-1.31 in the Appendix) constitute the justifications that we label 'responsive'. These have been extensively examined in our previous study (Damhuis and Karremans 2017), wherein we identified significant overtime changes in the representativeness of the Parti Socialiste, which are largely in line with the programmatic transformation of various European social-democratic between the 1990s and 2000s (e.g. Kitschelt 1994;Green Pedersen & Van Kersbergen 2002).…”

“…When linking these insights to the cross-time differences in the representativeness of the PS (Damhuis and Karremans 2017), a picture emerges wherein…”

“…As Mair’s argument is based on the idea that contemporary institutional constraints are rendering the partisan composition of government irrelevant, we try to draw a borderline between the ideological identity of the governing parties on the one hand and the institutional continuity of governments on the other. From our perspective, the distinction between the two notions is strongly related to the distinctive programmatic characteristics of the governing party: what do party voters expect from their representatives in office versus what is expected from governments disregarding of the party in office (see also Damhuis and Karremans 2017; Karremans 2017). Accordingly, responsiveness characterizes the political colour of the government, whereas responsibility reflects the institutional setting in which a cabinet operates.…”

“…Following up on a study on the changing responsiveness of the French Parti Socialiste (Damhuis and Karremans 2017), this paper investigates how the French governments under the two presidencies profiled themselves as 'responsible'. The paper thereby provides a comparative insight into how the 'responsible' side of policy-making today is different from the past.…”