Contenu du sommaire : Coalitions partisanes

Toward the « Real World » of Government Coalition
This article, which introduces this special issue of Politix about Government coalitions, purposes a critical survey of the main studies in this active field of political sciences. In the first part, we show how coalition theory has been developed as (something of) a self-containing field of study since the pioneering works of William Riker. This work, which is marked by the influence of positivism and rational choice paradigm, has influenced most of the later coalition studies. Recently, many stimulating developments have taken into account new variables and refined the analysis in order to analyze coalition governance. In the second part, we argue that, despite this evolution, only a radical shift toward a sociological approach of coalitions enables to improve the knowledge on “coalition life” and “coalition governance”. The papers gathered in this Politix issue, based on various field studies, show that this sociological shift opens up new ways for research (subjective experience of coalition, coalitions inclination to autonomy...).

The Government of all for Lack of Anything Better. Institutionalization and Transformation of the “Magic Formula” in Switzerland (1959-2003)
This paper focuses on the emergence, institutionalization and transformation of the “magic formula”, which has set the rule how the seven members of the Swiss Government (Federal Council) should be distributed among the four major parties (2 + 2 + 2 + 1) from 1959 to 2003. Using various kinds of sources, we look at practices and logics of situation, which are constitutive of this governmental coalition. The persistence of this type of coalition does not fit with coalition theories and is very often seen as an expression of the “Swiss consensus”. Taking an opposite course, this contribution highlights the long-term processes, which have played an important role for maintaining this equilibrium, as well as the evolution of the balance of power between the protagonists and the political struggles for the meaning of the coalition at the root of the changes in 2003.

Policies and Federal Governments in Belgium: Between Coalitional Constraints and Compromises
This article characterizes the political and coalitional system in the Belgian federal governments. It underlines the ways governmental coalitions function and their impact on public policies' conception and implementation as well as on the law-making process. Based on a veto players analysis (which refers to the institutional and partisan actors whose agreement is required to change a policy), it also considers the institutionalization of the political practices facilitating the reaching of an agreement. The rules of the political game, which have been progressively formalized by actors, do not only influence the capacity to implement reforms, but above all the choice of the procedures mobilised and the selection among diverse alternatives. In Belgium, those rules reveal the tensions between coalitional constraints and compromises necessary to overcome the disagreements between parties and linguistic groups.

When the Administration Shapes Political Coalitions. Greens' Threats against Planning Process in Paris (2001-2008)
The article proposes to consider a coalition's government not in terms of relations between elected representatives, but looking at administrative inputs. The reflection concentrates on the agents of the Bureau of City Planning in Paris, working on a new urban plan under the coalition regime between 2001 and 2008. Their work tends to dissociate effective regulatory tools and discussed topics. Therefore, it strengthens the coalition's stability, because conflicts and compromises can unfold more easily since they have few substantial implications on the document.

Coalition Agreements in a French Left-Wing Union Local Government
Coalition agreements are often presented as the principal coalition governance instrument. According to scholars, they have three functions: a communicative function, a policy-making function and a conflict resolution function. Starting from a critical discussion of these researches, this article aims at elucidating the conditions and the modalities of their mobilisation by coalition members. It is based on an ethnographic study of the Left Union ruling coalition of the French city of Calais from 1971 to 2008. The analysis of the contents and the multiple uses of these contracts shows that they constitute both the frames and the stakes of the coalition negotiations. Their presentation in the form of formal, written contracts can be explained by the properties given by the parties to this juridical form, namely their capacity to reduce the uncertainties and risks inherent in the coalitional association while preserving the room for manœuvre in political negotiations and competition. Thus, they are marked by a constitutive tension, between the game from which they issue and their official objective, that of the regulation of coalition relationships.

A grand Coalition Regime?
Most of the metropolitan institutions in France are governed by grand coalitions, in which the main left and right political parties are allies. Politicians involved in these unusual alliances (for France) point to the alleged peculiarities of these institutions to justify them. This article, based on ethnographic fieldwork, shows how theses grand coalitions, far from being the result of a natural agreement about the goals of metropolitan policies, are the result of structural compromises between the mayors in order to avoid partisan conflicts and to share policy resources at this institutional level. The article also explores some of the specific organizational mechanisms which support the relations between the members of these coalitions and prevent them from struggling.

The « Malgré-nous » of the House of Freedoms
This article leds on the hypothesis that a coalition can be considered as a proof during which normal rules and practices of activism are tested. Through the Italian case of the House of Freedoms (mainly composed by the Northern League, the National Alliance and Forza Italia) the ruling collation between 2001 and 2006, we explore the consequences of this kind of alliance on young activists, just as their party was joining the government. Focusing on the grass-roots enables us to underline that perception and use conditions of the coalition depend on a set of different factors which characterised each party: the importance of ideology, the type of partisan culture, the probability to access to electoral mandates for its members, the position of the party inside the coalition, the degree of professionalization and the proximity towards the practice of politics. If the impact of the coalitional configuration on the activities of the youth organisations is globally weak, on the contrary it affects the careers (and role conflicts associated to them) of their members, especially for those whose experiencing the most a contradiction between expected/real benefits from the coalition and their primary partisan socialization.

A Case of Fickle Collectors or Self-Interested Patrons?
A large controversy had occurred in France, both in the art world and the urban planning milieu while François Pinault had gave up the idea of settling down his own contemporary art gallery in the core of the Boulogne-Billancourt urban regeneration project. It was the first private project for an art gallery at this scale in France. The objectives of this paper are to understand the reasons and the context that had permitted F. Pinault's volte-face and had led the project to fail. This research paper will reveal some of the hidden sides of this project process. Indeed, the local public authorities were impeached for their weak enthusiasm toward this project and for their lack of professionalism. But the duties and the responsibilities of F. Pinault in this failure were obviously underestimated and even concealed whereas F. Pinault's image and reputation as a megacollector had widely benefited from this art gallery project, in spite of its giving up.

What's a Right Action? Pragmatical Engagments for the Justice in East-Jerusalem
Can we bypass the simplified theory (critical theory) of domination and oppression often used to characterize the current situation of enclosure of Palestinians in East Jerusalem? Our survey and research concern the pragmatic actions of the citizens of East Jerusalem to overcome the enclosure and the separatism. Despite the relations of force imposed by the closure (the control of movement and of the mobility of people, the military presence, and the physical imprint of the fence), citizens create their own modes for regulating these injustices. These modes correspond to illegal or informal movements in order to cross the border between East Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories, to benefit from economic activities or to obtain an administrative status. Pragmatic actions overcome the traditional break between the political and the moral, and challenge the collective norms (stemming from religion, resistance and patriotism). These practical actions also reveal forms of trust in the enemy (Israel), that contradict to some extent the norms and collective judgments within the community (the sense of patriotism and honour dominates), appear like tests for civility and human decency. They mark the emergence of individualism and subjectivity which could be linked to the notion of self realization and freedom which are both values of liberalism, and consist in recognizing the capacities and capabilities which are also the sources of pluralism. Such an approach opens the perspective for the notion of the recognition at a non‑institutional level.