Policy beyond politics? Public opinion, party politics and the French pro-nuclear energy policy
type: Dataset
description: At first sight, French nuclear energy policy offers a textbook example of how technical, constitutional and economic restrictions, powerful interest groups, and path dependence, constrain democratic responsiveness. This paper uses what might seem to be an unlikely case in order to question explanations of policy choices in terms of technocracy, path dependence, and interest groups, against the background of an underestimated factor: party and coalition strategies. The original data collected on public attitudes towards nuclear energy, and the attention dedicated to this issue in the media, as well as in the parliamentary and electoral arenas, show that the effect of public opinion is conditioned by party incentives to politicize the issue at stake. In other words, parties and coalition-making constraints act as a mediating variable between citizens' preferences and policy choices. These findings point to the need to integrate this conditional variable into analyses of responsiveness and models of policymaking.
landing page: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00911445
keyword: infoeu-reposemanticspreprint
keyword: nuclear-energy
keyword: party-politics
keyword: preprints-working-papers-
keyword: public-opinion
keyword: shsscipohumanities-and-social-sciencespolitical-science
issued: 2026-05-08T00:55:31.689229
modified: 2026-05-08T00:55:31.689234
language: en
contact point: Organization
  fn: CCSD

test_moissonnage_selune
type: Agent

Policy beyond politics? Public opinion, party politics and the French pro-nuclear energy policy
type: Distribution
format: HTML
access URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00911445
issued: 2026-05-08T00:55:31.696994
modified: 2026-05-08T00:55:31.676970