chapter 4: France

Question 1

absolute monarchy

Answer 1

the stage in the evolutionary development of Europe between the more decentralized feudal monarchies of the Middle Ages and the constitutional governments of the modern era

Question 2

estates general

Answer 2

weak french assembly before the french revolution, representing the clergy, nobles, and commoners

Question 3

national assembly

Answer 3

the 577-member lower house of the french parliament

Question 4

reign of terror

Answer 4

seizure of power and class war launched by radical Jacobins in revolutionary France (1793-94)

Question 5

prime minister

Answer 5

leader appointed by the french president and approved by the majority of the lower house of the legislature, selects a cabinet and presides over the day-to-day affairs

Question 6

events of may

Answer 6

Parisian riots of 1968 in which students and workers called for educational and social reforms

Question 7

Nicolas Sarkozy

Answer 7

conservative president from 2007 to 2012

Question 8

François Hollande

Answer 8

socialist president from 2012 to 2017

Question 9

Emmanuel Macron

Answer 9

a young relatively inexperienced centrist economist, elected president in 2017

Question 10

semi-presidential

Answer 10

a legislative-executive system that divides political power among the legislature, a directly elected president, and a prime minister responsible to both the legislature and the president

Question 11

council of ministers

Answer 11

the cabinet selected by the prime minister

Question 12

François Mitterand

Answer 12

leader of french socialist party starting in 1971, president of France 18981-1995

Question 13

Jacques Chirac

Answer 13

president of France, 1995-2007

Question 14

motion of censure (vote of no confidence)

Answer 14

an act of legislature against the government, requiring new elections when proposed legislature submitted as matters of confidence are not passed

Question 15

cohabitation

Answer 15

an arrangement in which presidents lacking the majority of legislative power appoint an opposition prime minister who can gain a majority of support in the legislature

Question 16

parlement

Answer 16

France’s bicameral legislature

Question 17

sénat

Answer 17

France’s 348 upper house of the legislature

Question 18

blocked vote

Answer 18

a vote that forces legislature to accept bills in their entirety and allows amendments only if they are approved by the government

Question 19

code law

Answer 19

law derived from detailed legal codes rather than from precedent

Question 20

constitutional council

Answer 20

the highest judicial authority on constitutional and electoral matters

Question 21

prefect

Answer 21

government appointed local official

Question 22

école nationale d’administration (ENA)

Answer 22

national administrative school; a state institution who primary mission is to train civil servants

Question 23

pantouflage (putting on slippers)

Answer 23

refers to the move of the administrative elite from the bureaucracy to the top echelons of the private sector

Question 24

four party, two-bloc system

Answer 24

a system requiring coalition building in the second round of the two-round single member district system

Question 25

national front (FN)/ national rally (NR)

Answer 25

a political party on the far right that was created by Jean-Marie Le pen in 1972, renamed NR in 2018

Question 26

Marine Le Pen

Answer 26

daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen and leader of the National Front ( National Rally) since 2011

Question 27

general confederation of labor (CGT)

Answer 27

most powerful french union confederation, linked to french communist party (PCF)

Question 28

french democratic labor confederation (CFDT)

Answer 28

a smaller confederation backed by the socialist party

Question 29

laïcité (secularism)

Answer 29

the subordination of religious identity to state and national identity (state over church)

Question 30

populism

Answer 30

a political view that does not have a consistent ideological foundation, but that emphasizes hostility towards elites and established state and economic institutions and favors greater power in the hands of the public

Question 31

regime

Answer 31

norms and rules that govern politics

Question 32

french revolution

Answer 32

overthrow in 1789-1799 french absolute monarchy and establishment of first republic

Question 33

ancien régime

Answer 33

European "old order" of absolute monarchy reinforced by religious authority

Question 34

coup d'etat

Answer 34

forceful and sudden overthrow of the governmet

Question 35

fifth republic

Answer 35

France's current regime (1958 to present)

Question 36

yellow vests movement

Answer 36

mass protest that began in late 2018 in opposition to tax reforms and reductions in subsidies for gasoline, the movement was named for the safety vests that french motorists are required to carry in their vehicles