Contenu du sommaire : 1958-1962 : l'avènement d'un "pouvoir gaulliste" ?

The last government of the Fourth Republic (June 1958) with General de Gaulle and the first government of the Fifth Republic (January 1959) with Michel Debré as Prime Minister included non-Gaullist ministers. De Gaulle needed the support of ministers who had been the political leaders of the Fourth Republic as well as the support of top-ranking civil servants who were eager for modernity and efficiency. But the cohabitation between Gaullist and non Gaullist members has not been easy. The senior civil servants successfully adapted themselves to the political culture of the new Republic which was not the case of the ministers, who were political leaders under the Fourth Republic.

In the aftermath of the 1958 events, the Gaullist party returned to power: General de Gaulle was called back to lead the Cabinet(President of the Council), a new constitution was approved, the newly constituted UNR was successful in the November's general election and De Gaulle was elected as President of the Republic in December. In 1959, local elections were held and provided an opportunity for UNR to strengthen its presence in local government. The electoral conquest of large cities by the Gaullists would indeed demonstrate the sustainability of their political success and prevent their opponents from exercising local power. A victory in Paris would also be particularly symbolic, despite the special status of the capital: the RPF victory in Paris in 1947 had galvanized the Gaullists. Although disappointing compared with Gaullist ambitions to regain the level achieved in 1947, the 1959 Paris election (when measured against national results) can nevertheless be considered as a relative success for the UNR. Certainly, the resistance of the CNI, particularly in the middle-class districts of the left bank, hindered total victory for the Gaullists. But, thanks to an agreement with the CNI, not to mention the behavior of the Socialists, the Gaullists captured key positions like the Presidency, four of the six permanent committee chairmanships, and were also in charge of the general report of the budget and staff.

From 1959 to 1962, the relationships between the Senate and the executive power revealed frequent strains which were not only limited to the debate relating to the way the President of the Republic was elected. Tensions resulted from different conceptions of the regime but also from diverging views on economic and social issues. Little by little, criticisms against Gaullism had an impact on all the parliamentary groups except the UNR and led to the wilful opposition about the 1962 constitutional reform.

Since 1940, Gaullism considered the French Colonial Empire as a fundamental part of the French world influence. Under the 4th Republic, the Gaullists accused the republican colonial policy of liquidating the Empire. In 1958, the “French Union” became the “Community” and, for de Gaulle and the UNR, the new Community was to last forever. However as early as in 1960 the Community dissolved itself without any reaction from the Gaullist movement. This paper explores the paradox.

Elected thanks to the partisans of French Algeria in May 1958, de Gaulle had for some time maintained an ambiguous position on the political future of this war-torn territory, at the risk of maintaining conflicting hopes. He left behind such ambiguity on September 16th, 1959 on the occasion of a televised speech. To general surprise, he used for the first time the term “self-determination”, which had up to then been taboo, giving de facto recognition to the right of the majority Muslim population to choose its fate. The evolution of de Gaulle's position on the Algerian question has been the object of numerous studies but the reaction of the Gaullists to this same presidential evolution remains largely unknown. Focusing on oral sources, we will study the reaction of certain Gaullists to the presidential speech, after reminding ourselves of the evolution of the party as a whole on the Algerian question. The study will show as expected the wide variety of reactions to the “U-turn” of September 16th, from support via questioning to refusal. But it will also underline that, just like the broad mass of French people, individual members of parliament, minor militants and plain sympathizers probably supported the opening up of the General's line more than the party high elite did.

The relationships between the administrative elites and the executive were not “immediately” transformed with the return of General de Gaulle to power in June 1958. The Algerian War and de Gaulle's will to rip the government's actions away from partisan politics gradually redefined the boundaries between the administrative sphere and the political arena in the early years of the V th Republic. As such, it can be referred to as a “time of transition”. The expected loyalty of senior civil servants to the executive power would become a more demanding one, without equating, however, to the politicization of the administration.

The historiography of fascism considers the relationship between Benito Mussolini and Ida Dalser of marginal importance in the life of the Duce of fascist Italy: this love affair is scarcely mentioned in Denis Mack Smith's Mussolini and summarized in one or two footnotes in Renzo De Felice's monumental biography and in two or three pages in Pierre Milza's one. Marco Bellocchio recently devoted a film (Vincere, 2009) to this little-known episode. This is a rather uncommon choice in the Italian cinematographic panorama. Mussolini biography has generally been considered a tricky subject that could hide laudatory intention. Thus, it has inspired documentary films rather than fictions. Yet Marco Bellocchio's film offers a very critical point of view on Italian history and politics.

The French baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) is famous for the revival of the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. Far less known is the fact that he wanted the first modern Game to take place in Paris in 1900 simultaneously with the Universal Exhibition. But his plan, inspired by liberal and pacifist ideals, was postponed due to the vigourous opposition of the Greek diplomacy and of Démétrios Bikelas. This paper puts into perspective the influence of philhellenism in de Coubertin's projects, compared to liberal and pacifist motives. The cultural philhellenism of the European elites played a role in the invention of the Olympic tradition.

In France, Labour History is a marginal sub-field of historical study. For long the loss of the inter-war trade-union (CGT) archives, first captured by the Germans, then brought back to the USSR after World War II, had prevented researchers from exploiting them. For ten years now, public access to the CGT archives has been made possible by their restitution and return to France. This paper explores the hectic story of these records and reviews the future prospects of research.

Fragments of the postcolonial academic game (about a collective : l'Association pour la connaissance de l'histoire de l'Afrique contemporaine – ACHAC)The historiography trajectory of ACHAC points out how one of the post colonialism segment is connected to the scientific field. The strategy that this group is following is spreading over two registries: activist and scientific. The post colonialism in a topical sequence marked by its strong politicization where these two registries meet.