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156 | THE PROFESSIONALISM OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

Presidential elections, in 1995 and 2002, thanks to very thorough campaigns led by the
best possible professional one could get: a daughter, able to carve the utmost
personally-designed campaign thanks to her extensive knowledge of her father-
politician and by her easy access to him.

As a final remark, we should note that these changes in political communication and
campaigning have had effects other than their direct consequences on election results.
They have indirectly considerably influenced the whole French political system and
modified the balance of power towards a considerable increase, in many respects, of
the President’s role.

Already the keystone of the French democratic system, the presidential election has
given a greater influence to the elected presidents. By inducing a stronger and stronger
personalisation of politics in the election process, the professionalisation of political
communication has considerably strengthened them, not only in regards to their losing
opponents, but also in relation to their own fellow party members. Political parties have
been considerably weakened; they are now in some way ‘anonymous’ in the media to
the eyes of the voters since they have no tangible existence in regards to the faces and
words of the politicians who dominate and represent them. Therefore, they have quite
clearly lost a lot of their ideological input value and are more and more used only as
tools to achieve better election results.

The clear proof of this first effect is the way that the past two French presidents have
been able to build their parties into very efficient electoral machines without much
opposition. The socialist party was never as well disciplined as during the Mitterrand’s
era, and the RPR was very clearly assembled since its foundation in 1976 by Jacques
The Professionalisation of Political Communication
Chirac to help him achieve his goal of becoming president. More recently, in taking
control of the UMP, the party which succeeded the RPR, former economy and finance
Minister Nicolas Sarcozy is following the same path.

This personal ascent of politicians who can endorse the ways and means of modern
professionalised political communication has not been limited to a power struggle
between those politicians and their parties. It has given an unheard of prominence in
policy making to the elected Presidents, whose constitutional powers had already been
strengthened by the 1958 Constitution of the 5th Republic. Ironically, this phenomenon
has never been as obvious as during François Mitterrand’s era.The same politician who
had rejected the Constitution of the 5th Republic and called it a ‘Coup d’Etat
permanent’ (A permanent Coup) in his famous book published right before the 1965
presidential election,has moulded himself quite easily in the seat of a quasi royal figure,
changing Prime Ministers as he wished, and imposing most of his whims, without any
opposition, thanks to the aura given to him by his two presidential victories.The loss of
the 1986 parliamentary elections was not even enough to stop him playing a
prominent role in French politics during the so-called ‘cohabitation’. Similarly, Prime
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