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Abstract
In setting out to compare Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency with those of his predecessors under the Fifth Republic, we need to keep in mind that, except for Georges Pompidou (who died before completing his seven-year term), and Jacques Chirac (who had already served seven years before being elected for a further five), Sarkozy is the first president to come into office with a relatively short five-year term ahead of him. Moreover, in the course of his presidency a major financial and economic crisis arose that greatly reduced his room for maneuver. In many respects, the pattern of this presidency resembles that of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, with a period of reform abruptly cut short by crisis. That said, the pension reforms pursued from the beginning of Sarkozy's presidency probably mark a very clear turning point, displaying a marked form of political voluntarism.
Notes
1. For simplicity, I shall use this method to label presidencies such as those of de Gaulle, Mitterrand and Chirac, which lasted for more than a single term.
2. I refer readers here, in a more epistemological vein, to Sirinelli.
3. Translator's note: As all of the presidents of the Fifth Republic have been men, the use of masculine gender is retained here.
4. Given that the topic addressed here has involved an expansion of the period under discussion to include the whole of the history of the Fifth Republic, limitations on space are such that it has not been possible to provide a general bibliography, which would need to be equally extensive. For detailed bibliographical information on the period, see Garrigues, Guillaume, and Sirinelli (2010).