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Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Tables and Figures -- Preface -- Abbreviations and Acronyms -- 1 France: The Historical and Constitutional Background -- The Legacy of the Revolution -- The Rise and Fall of the Fourth Republic -- The Sources and Nature of the Fifth Republic Constitution -- Constitutional Interpretation and Adaptation -- 2 The Economic and Social Context -- Economic Development -- Population Growth -- Industrial Modernization and Globalization -- Social Classes and Mobility -- Religion, Culture, and Citizenship -- Immigration, Naturalization, and Integration -- Ethnocultural Challenges -- The Educational System -- Democratizing and Modernizing the School System -- Research, Science, and Cultural Policy -- The Position of Women -- 3 Political Attitudes -- Civic-Mindedness and Incivisme -- Verbal and Practical Behavior -- The Street as a Political Arena -- Conceptions of the State -- National Identity -- 4 Political Parties and Elections -- The Political Left: The Socialist Party -- The Communists -- The Political Right: The Evolution of Gaullism From the RPR to the UMP -- The Political "Center": From Classic Provincialism to the UDF -- The Old Center -- The Elections of 1974 and the Emergence of Giscardo-Centrism -- The Left in Power: 1981 and After -- Rotations: Opposition Challenges to Incumbents, 1986-1995 -- The Right and Center in Opposition -- The Rise of the National Front -- The Parliamentary Election of 1986: Introduction to Power Sharing -- The Presidential and Parliamentary Elections of 1988 -- The Greens -- The Parliamentary Elections of 1993: The Confusion and Collapse of the Left -- The Victory of the Right -- The Marginalization of the Environmentalists and the Containment of the Extreme Right -- The Chirac Era -- The Presidential Elections of 1995: Antecedents and Consequences.

Western political scientists have tended to neglect the ethnic dimension in China, and have overemphasized the development from large empire to unified nation. This book brings together a number of case studies on the ethnic and regional dimensions of Chinese politics and society

The relationship of religion to freedom and democracy has been a matter of controversy throughout known history. Locke believed that religion is not compatible with individual freedom or democracy. These essays explore the links between nation.

"The present book brings together a number of case studies on the ethnic and regional dimensions of Chinese politics and society. Most of the contributors to this study use largely Chinese-language sources. Five are social anthropologists, and three (in addition to the editor) are political scientists. They provide in-depth analyses of Han relations with Mongolians and Muslims; the relations between the national government and selected provinces, especially after the 'Cultural Revolution'; the majority-minority interactions within provinces and the tensions within minority communities; the conflict between nationalism and Marxism and its impact on policies of culture and language; and attempts to balance the pressures for the legitimation of cultural diversity and for affirmative action with the imperatives of political unity."--Jacket

Jean A. Laponce contributed significantly to the study of political science, particularly in the fields of French and comparative politics, pluralism, the meaning of right and left, and the politics of ethnicity and language. His most influential writings focused on the politics of multilingual societies. He examined the place of language from three perspectives: the territorial imperative—a bounded formal space providing safety and dominance for a single language; the problems of nonterritorially based linguistic minorities; and the rivalries and conflicts between languages in contact. Finally, he dealt with the survival of minority languages and the fate of languages globally. This review article evaluates Laponce's contributions to political science.