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In 2002, the French party system seems to be demonstrating a fluidity, if not outright instability, equal to any period in the Fifth Republic's history. This book explores the extent to which this represents outright change and shifts within a stable structure. Portrayals of French political culture point to incivisme, individualism and a distrust of organizations. The book focuses on three fundamental political issues such as 'politics', 'power' and 'justice', which appear in almost all political discussions and conflicts. It identifies different 'types' of state in political theory and looks at the major challenges to practical state sovereignty in the modern world. Discussing the concept of the nation in the United Kingdom, the book identifies both cultural and political aspects of nationhood. These include nation and state; race and nation; language and the nation; religion and national identity; government and nation; common historical and cultural ties; and a sense of 'nationhood'. Liberal democracy, defensive democracy and citizen democracy/republican democracy are explained. The book also analyses John Stuart Mill's and Isaiah Berlin's views on 'negative' and 'positive' freedom. Conservatism is one of the major intellectual and political strains of thought in Western culture. Liberalism has become the dominant ideology in the third millennium. Socialism sprang from the industrial revolution and the experience of the class that was its product, the working class. Events have made 'fascism' a term of political abuse rather than one of serious ideological analysis. Environmentalism and ecologism constitute one of the most recent ideological movements.
This work demonstrates that resistance to occupation by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy during the Second World War has to be seen through a transnational, not a national, lens. It explores how people often resisted outside their country of origin because they were migrants, refugees or exiles who were already on the move. It traces their trajectories and encounters with other resisters and explores their experiences, including changes of beliefs, practices and identities. The book is a powerful, subtle and thought-provoking alternative to works on the Second World War that focus on single countries or on grand strategy. It is a ‘bottom up’ story of extraordinary individuals and groups who resisted oppression from Spain to the Soviet Union and the Balkans. It challenges the standard chronology of the war, beginning with the formation of the International Brigades in Spain and following through to the onset of the Cold War and the foundation of the state of Israel. This is a collective project by a team of international historians led by Robert Gildea, author of Fighters in the Shadows: A New History of the French Resistance (Faber & Faber, 2015). These have explored archives across Europe, the USA, Russia and Israel in order to unearth scores of fascinating individual stories which are woven together into themed chapters and a powerful new interpretation. The book is aimed at undergraduates and graduates working on twentieth-century Europe and the Second World War or interested in the possibilities of transnational history.
1962, the press characterised his visit as the consecration of a European emperor. The chances Europe presented, and still presents for France in terms of politics, economics, and culture, are widely recognised among French elites. To use Delors's terms, Europe presents ‘a unique opportunity' (Delors 1988, 261). However, these new opportunities have not translated into dramatic changes in terms of French political culture and discourse. In this sense, there is a gap between the political significance of Europe in the practices of the French political class and the
1 Stress, strain and stability in the French party system Alistair Cole The French party system Stress and stability Introduction Political parties do not find a natural breeding ground in France. Portrayals of French political culture point to incivisme, individualism and a distrust of organisations (Crozier, 1970, Pitts, 1981, Gaffney and Kolinsky, 1991). Though these representations are overly impressionistic, a powerful strand of French republicanism has denigrated political parties as divisive, fractious organisations. This is best exemplified by the
mainly on a rejection of the old party families and system? Experts such as Marc Lazar ( 2018a ) confess to a persistent difficulty of positioning ‘Macronism’ in the long term as a phenomenon between left and right, while Jeanneney ( 2017 ) is of the opinion that left and right will re-emerge in some form or another, and Juillard ( 2018 ) points to the robust health of social democracy and conservatism as central references in French political culture. Macron's movement LRM, as its title suggests, is focused more on movement and action than on vigorous philosophical
Parliament. French politicians in the Council of Europe introduced the idea of parity (parité) between men and women into the French Theoretical Premises of European Union Research 11 political debate. Traditionally, women have been weakly represented in French politics. Comparison of women's representation in France to other European countries in the press fuelled a broad movement that has culminated in laws and regulations concerning gender and political representation. Entering French political culture in the second half of the 1990s, politicians can today back
its end. The majority, who were abandoned by the French army on General de Gaulle's orders, were either worked to death as forced labour clearing minefields or killed as traitors to the cause of Algerian independence by the victors. 20 K.M. Baker, Inventing the French Revolution: Essays on French Political Culture in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 19. 21 C. Geertz, ‘Religion as a cultural system,’ in The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973), p. 89. 22 A. Hussey, The French
. Though the opportunities available to women politicians may have altered, partly thanks to European institutions, French political culture and the mechanisms for accumulating political power have - until now - changed very slowly. Apart from the political strategies of parties such as the Socialist Party and the Greens for attracting female votes, and the proportional lists used in European elections that enable women to figure as viable candidates, defeat in 106 Democracy, social resources and political power in the European Union national elections is another
[leader of the UDF Party] to put me on his list. (Beauvallet 1998, 65-6) 126 Democracy, social resources and political power in the European Union Local political anchoring is also required for access to high political offices in Paris. In French political culture, a local position is more valuable than a European one. This is why all rising political stars seek local mandates. Even French Commissioner (1994-99) Yves-Thibault de Silguy presented himself as a candidate for mayoral elections in the north of France. European Commission President Jacques Santer had to
question: What is really the issue’, in Samir Amghar, Amel Boubeker and Michael Emerson (eds), European Islam (Brussels: Center for European Studies, 2007); J. Scott, ‘Symptomatic politics. The banning of Islamic headscarves in French public schools’, French Politics, Culture and Society, 23:3 (2006), 106–27. Corbin, ‘I’m a feminist, and I converted to Islam’. Azam Kamguian, ‘Girls’ nightmare in Muslim families: Forced marriages in Europe’, Institute for the Secularization of Islamic Society (ISIS),Centre for Inquiry 2013 (no day and month), www