TO SURVIVE DE GAULLE
of “major themes of our campaign” are laid out. On the one hand, candi-
dates are advised to stress such slogans as: “No politics in the General
Councils,” and “The cantonal elections are elections of persons,” while,
on the other hand, repeating such partisan mottos as: “Chase out the Com-
munists, foreign agents,” “Eliminate the men of the Fourth Republic,” and
“Only the Gaullists can hold back the Popular Front.”12 The municipal elec-
tions of March, 1965, again involved the UNR in similar contradictions.13
Joined to the nonpartisan image in the speeches and writings of the
Gaullist leaders is the recurrent insistence that the Gaullist party — in
contrast to the doctrinaire incompetence of the traditional parties — is
interested primarily in the pragmatic and efficient solution of concrete prob-
lems. When critics argue that the UDR has no doctrine, Gaullist leaders
often reply that the country has had enough ideological warfare; what is
needed now, as former Secretary-General Jacques Baumel put it, is a
“practical approach to the great problems, a sense of the real and the con-
crete, to the exclusion of all ideology and of all a-priorism.”11 “The prob-
lems are much more technical than political,” added Baumel in early 1965.13
Gaullist deputies are no longer harangued by their leaders in the tradi-
tional oratorical style, we are told. Rather, they are “invited to model their
behavior on the example of a business manager charged with DIRECTING
with the goal of PRODUCING.”13 The mutual appeal of the UDR and
the managerial personnel in the larger private industries probably owes
much to the movement’s respect for technocracy and efficiency.17
In its own organizational efforts, the UDR exploits modern techniques
in an attempt both at efficiency and at distinguishing itself from the partis
de jadis. Party workers are trained in public relations techniques, and aid
is purchased from such professional public relations firms as Services et
Méthodes.18 Outside experts are brought into national congresses to lend a
professional, technical air to the deliberations. Colloquia on specific prob-
lems, again with experts invited, are held in various cities throughout the
country.
Without doubt the emphasis upon the efficient solution of concrete prob-
lems has real advantages for a party which hopes to create a modern, non-
ideological, classless image. Yet an emphasis upon technocracy leaves un-
answered the essential political questions of who will decide, and by what
standards, upon priorities in policy goals and in the distribution of the
national income.
Although clearly the UDR has introduced a new style in French poli-
tics, its uniqueness is not restricted to style. One must be cautious in talking
of the beliefs of Gaullists in the absence of precise data, yet it would appear
on the basis of documentary evidence that most Gaullist leaders share at
least three attitudes, in addition to their loyalty to de Gaulle: they are