The name is absent

RICE UNIVERSITY STUDIES

November, 1962 — and then only momentarily and obliquely, without
mentioning the name of the UNR — did de Gaulle descend from the heights
of apolitisme to call upon French voters to “confirm” their recent referen-
dum vote for popular election of the President by electing his supporters.⁸
In local elections de GaulIe has remained silent. In his own presidential
election of December, 1965, he made no mention of the UNR. He shuns
all party meetings and takes only a very indirect hand in such critical mat-
ters as party doctrine and organization. He attempted to give the cabinet a
distinctly nonpartisan character. Only in the legislative elections of March,
1967, did he begin to play the part of a party leader.

Herein lies one of the major paradoxes of the Gaullist party: it was de-
signed to support and to survive a leader who doubts the legitimate role of
political parties in the democratic process. As we shall see, many of its diffi-
culties stem from this predicament.

II. Style and Doctrine

Clearly one of the preeminent characteristics of de Gaulle as a political
leader is his blend of fixity in objectives (the greatness of France) with
great flexibility in choice of means. A party created to support such a
leader is faced with unusual problems of doctrinal and programmatic con-
sistency. Gaullists who, under the Fourth Republic, had believed Algeria
to be forever French, for example, watched in dismay as the General moved
toward a settlement which granted “association” in name and independence
in fact to that North African territory. Understandably, de Gaulle is reluc-
tant to allow a Gaullist party to commit itself to any beliefs or programs
which might limit his flexibility. Hence, like de Gaulle himself, the UDR
can be characterized not so much by its program as by its style, the major
elements of which are professed nonpartisanship, pragmatism, efficiency,
and modernism.

Following the example of the master, Jacques Baumel, as Secretary-
General of the UNR, asserted that “the vocation of Gaullism is not to be
a political party, but to bring together Frenchmen.”¹' UNR recruitment liter-
ature reiterated the theme that “the UNR is not a party, particularly not a
party like the others.”¹⁰ It is rather “the union of Frenchmen and French-
women, of all origins, determined to support, without the spirit of party,
the action of General de GauIlc and pursue his work within the framework
of the Fifth Republic.””

Faced with the organizational and electoral tasks of a political party,
however, the UNR and its successor, the UDR, find themselves caught in
embarrassing contradictions in their effort to create an above-party image.
In the cantonal elections of March, 1964, for example, the UNR head-
quarters in Paris compiled a “Candidate’s Dossier” in which a curious mix

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