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France's resistance to CAP reform has widely been attributed to the weakness of the state vis-à-vis organized farm interests. This paper argues that weak state theories overstate the role of administrative centralization and the organizational capabilities of farm groups and underestimate the role of ideas and of European politics in determining the transformative capacity of the French state. This argument is based on the observation that farm conservatism has persisted in the last two decades in spite of the growing autonomy of the French state vis-à-vis farm client groups. This article argues that we must pay more attention to the way European policy-making impinges upon the resources of the state and the organizational cohesion of farm groups and how the ideas held by domestic reform entrepreneurs determine their ability to win EU support for their blueprint and harness much-needed resources for carrying them out in the face of vested interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the puzzle of the Europeanization of French military policy between 1991 and 1996. To what extent is there a Europeanization of French military policy? How can Europeanization be understood and conceptualized in this particular area? I discuss the theoretical debate on Europeanization specifically in the defence sector, and present a methodology based on the study of the decision- making process of French military reforms. The analysis refutes the thesis according to which Europeanization is no more than an alibi or an illusion in the case of French military policy. Studying the decision-making process of the 1991-96 reforms illustrates the impact of European integration on the transformation of French military policy, affecting both cognitive and normative frames, and the actors and the instruments of this public policy. Finally, it details the mechanisms of this Europeanization without the EU. Institutional mediations are important, but in this case indirect pressures, é lite socialization and the learning process are more decisive factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As governments, committed to neo-liberalism but still committed to pursuing national economic success, seek for policy approaches that evade international competition law, they may turn to favouring national champion cities, usually but not always capital cities. This usually also favours particular industries and firms, but only indirectly. This is not the same as policies for favouring backward or declining regions, as the champions selected are already strong and well performing. The aim of policy is to make them even stronger, with resulting tension with pre-existing redistributive territorial policies. Examples are taken from a number of European cases, but with special emphasis on London and Paris. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact of European integration on French political institutions. In particular, it assesses the way in which the scrutiny of European affairs has affected and changed relations between the legislative and the executive. Contrary to previous work, we show that simple principal-agent models are difficult to apply to the French case, provided there are two directly elected institutions. Together with the relatively low salience of European issues in French public opinion, this explains why the scrutiny of European affairs has not given way to any substantial renegotiation of legislative-executive relations in France. The overall weakness of the French Parliament has finally been demonstrated with regard to European affairs, despite a substantial formal increase in powers of scrutiny since the Maastricht Treaty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the position of Europe and European issues in French public opinion. It considers existing research on the effect of Europe on national politics at élite and mass level, and the reasons for an apparent lack of change in behaviour or structure at either level in the French case. Using the 2002 French Election Panel survey, it examines the social and attitudinal structure to perceptions of European threats to France in order to identify the existence of an independent European dimension. It finds that, on many issues relating to Europe, views simply replicate traditional delineations in social structure and mass ideological views, but that the issue of social protection does not correspond to these existing dimensions. However, in keeping with previous research, it concludes that the likelihood of this dimension fundamentally altering electoral behaviour and consequently party alignment may be low, precisely given the heterogeneous profile of those concerned with this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to analyse how French non-state actors respond to European integration. Based on the broad framework of Europeanization, the article looks in more detail at the consequences of the influence of European integration on two variables: first, on non-state actors' interest and, second, on their relationship with the state. The author argues that the influence of European integration on domestic non-state actors is differentiated, depending on two factors: first, on the different types of non-state actors - public interest groups, social or protest movements and business interests and, second, on the attitude the state has adopted towards these groups. As a consequence of these factors, European integration will bring about change that ranges from rejection to adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until relatively recently, French élites seemed to have found a winning combination for the communicative discourses through which they legitimated European integration and responded to globalization. First, the Gaullist discourse underplayed the loss of sovereignty by emphasizing the gains to interests and identity through French leadership in Europe. Next, the Mitterrandist discourse updated the ideas in the Gaullist paradigm to legitimate further institutional integration while it added a new rationale for greater economic integration: Europeanization as a shield against globalization. The discourse in the Chirac years did little to change or update this discourse. The problem today is that neither the institutional nor the economic ideas in the discourse are persuasive: the public is convinced that France no longer leads Europe and that Europe no longer protects against globalization. And yet, French élites seem trapped in the old discourse, unable to develop new ideas capable of legitimating France in Europe and the world. This was dramatized by the 2005 French 'no' vote on the Constitutional Treaty, and did not change with the 2007 French presidential elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conflict between the European Community (EC) and the US on the terms of an agricultural accord stalled the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations (1986-93) for nearly three years. This article examines the policy process that formed around the agricultural dossier in France, where the government has long championed co-operation and collaboration with professional farm syndicates. Recent analyses link this co- operation to the policy community model of decision-making. Through a detailed examination of the dynamics of the policy process during the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) talks' crucial years, this article argues that the French government's handling of the agricultural dossier contradicts the fundamental elements of this model. The analysis poses problems for both the current literature on French agriculture and the applicability of policy community theory more generally. The stage is set for a more broadly encompassing theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

France traditionally attempted to achieve its national objectives via the medium of European integration by means of a strategy of playing a leading role in shaping institutional and policy developments at the European level. Behind this strategy lay a tension between a desire for a strong Europe and an unwillingness to cede national autonomy to European institutions. However, at least until the end of the 1980s, this tension was successfully ignored and France's European policy proved to be relatively successful. Since that time, however, increasing pressures have brought this tension to the fore. Faced with a need to respond to altered circumstances within the European Union (EU), President Chirac has responded uncertainly. As a result, and for the first time since the 1940s, France faces the prospect of losing the leading role it has traditionally played within European integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article assesses the impact of three distinct types of pressure for regulatory change on the two contrasting sectors of legal and medical service provision. These have been driven by both regional and global integration processes. The article focuses on the distinctive forms of regulatory competition which have developed at the European level, within the framework of a highly managed system of mutual recognition, and on the very different strategies for managing regulatory reform at the national level which have developed in two of the larger member states of the European Union (EU): France and Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]