Private Power and Centralization in France: The Notaires and the State (Princeton Legacy Library, 828) - Softcover

Suleiman, Ezra N.

9780691022932: Private Power and Centralization in France: The Notaires and the State (Princeton Legacy Library, 828)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0691022933 ISBN 13: 9780691022932

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1989

-Our perceptions of France are not much different today from de Tocqueville's over a century ago: a strong state confronting a weak and disorganized society. Here a well-known expert on modern French politics maintains that this view is now in need of serious revision. By examining the relationship between the notaires, members of a significant French legal profession with deep roots in French history, and the state, Ezra Suleiman demonstrates that clientelism exists and may be more dangerous in a centralized state than in a decentralized one. 'Convincing reasons have been offered for bringing the state back into mainstream social science, but uncomfortably few studies have justified the promise of this approach. Hence it is a great pleasure to welcome this brilliant case study of the relations between the notaires and the French state, not least because of the considerable light it casts both on France and on state theory. There can be no doubt but that this major study will become required reading for those interested in comparative politics and the state.' -John A. Hall, American Journal of Sociology 'The whole book is written with Suleiman's customary lucid restraint, breadth of vision and penetration of argument. There is much to be learned from it in the search for a way to characterize the relationship between private and public actors in the policy process.... It is a tribute to the courage and success with which Ezra Suleiman has tackled an especially difficult and important subject that his book received the rare accolade of being translated into French even before its publication in English.' -Government and Opposition Ezra N. Suleiman is IBM Professor in International Studies and Director of the Council on Regional Studies at Princeton University. Among his works are Politics, Power, and Bureaucracy in France: The Administrative Elite (Princeton) and Elites in French Society: The Politics of Survival (Princeton).

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