The name is absent

THE DEMOCRATIC UNION FOR THE REPUBLIC:
TO SURVIVE DE GAULLE

by John S. Ambler

As Secretary-General of the young Union for the New Republic (UNR)¹
in May, 1959, Albin Chalandon described a predicament which undoubt-
edly has frustrated numerous Gaullist leaders in recent years. “General
de Gaulle is our clandestine chief,” said Chalandon. “Our position is a little
like that of secret agents who owe total obedience to their military chief,
who himself does not hesitate to disavow them when things go badly.”²
Chalandon found himself executive head of a party created to support a
man who had no faith in parties, who was reluctant to acknowledge or
identify himself with his party supporters, and almost as reluctant to reward
them with power and public office. Insofar as they accept the Gaullist view
of the state, Chalandon and his successors have produced a party which is
suspicious of partisanship, if not of politics. Here lies one of the paradoxes
of the party which holds many of the keys to future political stability in
France. Another related paradox is Gaullism’s blend of a modern style with
lingering strains of traditional antirepublicanism.

The views of its mentor, its doctrine and style, its composition, its pat-
tern of development, and its organization all provide clues to the character
and prospects of that movement which hopes to survivre à de Gaulle. We
shall examine each of these, then, in a concluding section, attempt to
sharpen our analysis of the problems of the present Gaullist party, the
Union Démocratique pour la République (UDR), by comparing it with
modern “catchall” parties in other major democracies.

I. De Gaulle on Political Parties

Given the markedly negative connotations of “party politician” in France
in the first years of the Fifth Republic, and the danger of alienating voters

Editor’s Note: Mr. Ambler is Associate Professor of Political Science at Rice Uni-
versity. The author wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to the American
Philosophical Society for assistance which made the research for this paper possible.

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