Volume 29, Number 13 · August 12, 1982
Year One
By Stanley Hoffmann
The Heights of Power: An Essay on the Power Elite in France
by Pierre Birnbaum, translated by Arthur Goldhammer
University of Chicago Press, 172 pp., $17.00
The Wheat and the Chaff
by François Mitterrand, translated by Richard S. Woodward, translated by Concilia Hayter, translated by Helen R. Lane, With an introduction by William Styron
Seaver Books, 304 pp., $16.95
Problems of Contemporary French Politics
by Dorothy Pickles
Methuen, 160 pp., $20.00; $8.95 (paper)
François Mitterrand has been president of France since May 10, 1981. Just over a year ago, having dissolved the National Assembly, he won the legislative elections of June 14 and 21, 1981. In discussing the presidential election, I concluded that turning his victory into a program of action entailed three problems.[1] One was political—obtaining a working majority and a strong government. The second was economic—reducing unemployment without provoking acute inflation and troubles for the franc. The third was personal: how would this enigmatic and complex man, emerging from twenty-three years in the wilderness, perform as a leader?
Review, 8771 words
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