36
RICE UNIVERSITY STUDIES
list political style, as well as in French authority patterns generally.1?s
Secondly, the UDR is dependent in a unique way upon de Gaulle’s
leadership. Although the modern British Conservatives owe much to Dis-
raeli and the German CDU to Adenauer, these leaders rose within the
party and were dependent upon its strength. De Gaulie rose to power before
the UNR came into existence and subsequently refused to identify with the
party which claimed him.
Despite Gaullism’s claim to modernity, it might be argued that it is only
a fleeting episode which, with the passing of de Gaulle, will be followed
by yet another reversion to assembly government. If opinion surveys are
taken as a guide, however, it seems clear that the institutional reforms which
Gaullism has wrought have been generally well received, though there
is some sentiment for restoring some of the importance of parliament (but
not of political parties).’7” In April, 1962, 59 percent of al] respondents in a
national survey considered the governmental stability of the Fifth Republic
to be a decided advantage, as against 15 percent who thought it disadvan-
tageous.1*1' In the fall of that same year, 33 percent of all respondents de-
clared the institutions of the Fifth Republic to be “better” than those of the
Fourth Republic, while 31 percent found them to be “approximately equal,”
and 13 percent to be “worse.”'-" Popular approval of direct election of the
president is much more universal. Since the old parties joined to wage war
on de Gaulle over this reform in October, 1962, popular approval of the
change has increased from 46 percent “yes” votes (out of all registered
voters) in the fall of 1962 to 74 percent approval in May of 1964 — includ-
ing 61 percent of all Communist voters and 70 percent of Socialist voters —
to 78 percent approval in November, 1965.lss To be sure, the hostility of
mass opinion to the Third Republic, revealed in the referendum of October
21, 1945, did not prevent the resurrection of “Marianne” by the old
“political class,” which today remains largely aloof from the Fifth Republic.
Even here, however, major figures like Gaston Deferre, Jean Lecanuet, and
even François Mitterand seem eager to accept the new institutional frame-
work, and thereby at long last to place the constitution around rather than
within the political battlefield.1*’ A recent study of political attitudes among a
sample of French leaders in such fields as politics, the military, the civil
service, business, communications, and the liberal professions revealed that
a majority of this elite group were satisfied with the institutions of the Fifth
Republic and expected them to survive, though with some modifications.ιs'
If, then, the chances for survival of the formal institutional structure of
de Gaulle’s Republic are at least fair, can the same be said of the Gaullist
party, without whose parliamentary majority the institutions, and particu-
larly the Weimar-type dual executive, might work very differently? Are
the common beliefs of Gaullists in national independence, governmental