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The polyarchic model and the conditions necessary to its survival, by François Bourricaud In a first part the author characterizes the polyarchic model, that is the type of regime which is most frequent in advanced western industrial societies since the second world war. Its two main characteristics are social pluralism and political dualism. In a second part the author analyses some of the ambiguities of the model. In the third and last part he insists principally on the difficulties inherent in the representation and organization of interest groups, and this leads him to challenge the views all too commonly held on the "theory of associations".

Nixon and his majority: a south-bound strategy? by Marie-France Toinet If President Nixon wants to make the Republican Party a real majority party, what strategy should he adopt? The most "Southern" aspect of his policy aims at destroying the fragile dominant position of the Democrats in the South. But although the South is essential, it cannot make up a conservative majority alone, for the President's strategy is more conservative than "south-bound". He aims at making the Republican Party into a more diversified organisation which would no longer be the refuge of the poverty-stricken minorities but that of the "haves" who want to safeguard their relative prosperity against the attacks of the "have-nots". This infers a belief in the hypothesis that the political behaviour of the workers is now similar to that of the "haves", but neither the opinion polls nor the recent by-elections confirm this. The electorate is undecided, but the question remains: is it inclined to follow Nixon?