the leading figure in French politics, this time as president, cohabiting with a
socialist prime minister, at the beginning of the 21st century. The extent to
which he was any longer a Gaullist in anything but name remains unclear.
As an overall movement, Gaullism has no particularly distinctive ideology,
except its adherence to some of the views that were dear to de Gaulle. Of these
the most significant is a belief in the importance of a strong centralized state,
with a powerfulexecutiveand without France’s traditional burden of a
powerful but anarchic parliament, which had weakened and made ineffective
all governments during the Third and Fourth Republics. This had been de
Gaulle’s aim at the beginning of theFourth Republic, and it was what he
created in theFifth Republic. Even this, though, is by no means new as an
ideal in French politics, being a re-interpretation of theJacobintradition. The
other vital element of de Gaulle’s thinking accepted by modern Gaullism is the
importance of French national independence and a suspicion of internation-
alist movements. Thus de Gaulle partially withdrew France fromNATO, and
the Gaullists remain lukewarm towards France’s membership of theEuropean
Union. This position went hand-in-hand with a stress on France’s own
military forces: de Gaulle created a nuclear deterrence force, and the Gaullist
parties have always been determined to keep up such independent military
strength. Even these policies, however, except perhaps the attitude to Europe,
may be seen as essentially French rather than Gaullist, because the socialist
Mitterrand, president from 1981–95, kept faith with them. Representing
what France essentiallyis, though, is exactly how the party would describe
itself.
De Gaulle himself had a more complicated political philosophy built round a
distinction he drew between ‘Noble’ and ‘Base’ politics. Noble politics, which
he felt he practised as president, had to do with uniting the nation and leading
it in crucial areas of the public interest, being a non-partisan activity. Indeed, de
Gaulle derided political parties as divisive and often corrupt, and his personal
relations with his own political parties (they never, in fact, had ‘party’ in their
titles) were always distant and aloof. In contrast, base politics were the politics
of haggling and compromise on private or sectional interests, which he felt
were best left to others, especially parliament, in the day-to-day running of
society. Politically, the Gaullists are now a fairly orthodox conservative party,
with a predictable support among the middle and upper classes, the religious,
the older, and, often, women. Originally it had been an ideologically diverse
movement, united above all by a commitment to de Gaulle as a national
saviour, and to the need to fight for the stability of the Fifth Republic. With de
Gaulle dead and the Republic safely entrenched it has narrowed its ideological
and voting base, but remains well organized and politically the main opposition
to the united French left, particularly when working in alliance with other
centre-right groupings.
Gaullism