The development of the French executive: Endogenous Americanization

Abstract

In the context of current debates about the presidentialization and personalization of politics, this review discusses the Americanization of presidential politics in France. Two specific areas are reviewed: the personalization of French presidential elections and the presidentialization of the executive decision-making process. The discussion focuses on a set of features that are usually associated with the US system, such as the relatively recent adoption of primary elections, the programmatic differences between presidential candidates and their parties, and their increasingly centrist policies. By contextualizing this analysis within the development of the Fifth Republic, we emphasize the endogenous roots of the apparently Americanized practices of the French executive and their full adaptation to the French institutional context.