Proportional but bipolar: France's electoral system in 1986

Abstract

President Mitterrand's decision to restore proportional representation for French parliamentary elections for the first time in 30 years raised fears of a return to the parliamentary instability of the Fourth Republic. This article examines the motives behind the change, and explains how the detailed (often not very proportional) workings of the system and the parties’ use of it gave France a narrow right‐wing majority in the March 1986 election.

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