FRANCE: Esthetic Pleasure

Walking into the Assembly one day last week, Premier Edgar Faure was heard to mutter: "What a rotten job I've got! It requires so much patience." Faure had asked the Assembly for special decree powers to tackle France's complex fiscal problem. Many of his predecessors, including Pierre Mendès-France, had had such special powers, but now a sizable portion of the Assembly was bewitched by the down-country strength of Demagogue Pierre Poujade, who had organized a tax strike among thousands of France's little shopkeepers (TIME, March 28).

In order to get his special...

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