Political representation in France /

A monumental study of representative government in France under the Fifth Republic (19581973). The data are based on mass and elite interviews that examine the relationship between public opinion and legislative decision making. As part of their focus, the authors attempt to interpret the mass upheaval of 1968 as an alternative channel of communication between mass and elite. The work is quite sophisticated, methodologically drawing on various statistical techniques and prior research paradigms, e.g., Warren E. Miller and Donald E. Stokes, ``Constituency Influence in Congress,'' American Political Science Review, 57 (1963):45-56. Four appendixes cover the design and implementation of the interviewing. A selected (though dated) bibliography is included. Both authors are professors of political science at the University of Michigan, and have distinguished reputations in the field of comparative politics. They are not only specialists on modern France, but also well equipped both theoretically and methodologically to undertake this study. This work is perhaps one of the most significant research enterprises to examine the dynamics of mass political behavior in a modern European democracy. For graduate students and faculty.-V.E. McHale, Case Western Reserve University