Showing papers in "French Politics, Culture & Society in 2010"

The Long-Term Destabilization of Youth, Scarring Effects, and the Future of the Welfare Regime in Post-Trente Glorieuses France

Abstract: Welfare Regime in Post-Trente Glorieuses France Louis Chauvel Sciences-Po To be published 2010 in French Politics, Culture & Society The future of youth is old age, and beyond. My aim here is not to forecast the social conditions for entry into the future labor market, in the 2020s say, but rather to analyze the consequences of contemporary problems (the scarcity of jobs, unemployment, the stagnation of wages, and so on) for the life chances of youth. I also analyze the first cohorts of adults socialized in the economic slowdown of the 1970s an d 1980s to understand the long-term consequences of the crise. This essay therefore focuses on the consequences of the (des)integration of youth in France in the context of mass unemployment and déclassement scolaire (over-education and diploma inflation). This Frenc h experience is interesting in itself. When put in comparative international perspective, however, we can see even more clearly the long-term difficulties facing a number of countries: it is not just a matter of the sacrifice of the youth of today; early career probl ems create “scarring effects” in the future and pose risks for the future of welfare regimes. 2

Massacres and Their Historians: Recent Histories of State Violence in France and Algeria in the Twentieth Century

Abstract: Historians cannot resist violence.* Not simply because of a voyeuristic interest in the dramatically lethal, but also because many of the most vexing questions about the writing of history converge in the crucible of violent events. Historians are attracted to the subject because they hope that it might tell them something about the fundamental problems in their discipline: questions about causality, agency, narrative, and contingency; about the readability of the past and the conclusions that one can draw about complex social phenomena from fragmentary and often one-sided bits of evidence. Inevitably, however, some historians who write about violence will find their work taken up in broader public debates, and these discussions can take them far from the libraries, archives, and classrooms where they are most comfortable. In this way, historians are ushered, some more willingly than others, into turbulent public forums where their status and claims for expertise make them both sources of legitimation and targets of attack. Regardless of the success of historians in addressing the questions raised by violence, the nature of their efforts, and their varying claims for objectivity or completeness, make them irresistible reference points for others who have a different axe to grind. Historians cannot resist violence, but others who speak of violence cannot resist historians, either. This tension between public debate and historical research is clearly visible in recent work about violence and the French colonial empire. Since the thirtieth anniversary of Algerian independence in 1992, a steady stream of works dealing with colonial violence has appeared, with much attention devoted to the volatile period between the end of World War II and the early 1960s, when most of France’s colonies gained their independence. At least two

The Far Right Vote in France: From Consolidation to Collapse?

Abstract: The presidential and legislative elections of 2007 are widely seen to have marked the end of the far right as a major political force in France. How could this occur only five years after Le Pen’s qualification for the presidential run-off, and with his party seemingly in the ascendant? This article discusses recent fluctuations in far-right electoral performance in France. It focuses largely on the presidential elections of 2002 and 2007, re-examining the (supposed) upswell of far-right support in 2002 and its (supposed) subsidence in 2007. Both elections require nuanced interpretation. Both confounded poll predictions, which in 2007 failed to measure the effect of Sarkozy’s hard-right campaign and, crucially, the extent to which the border between “mainstream right” and “far right” had shifted since 2002. This allowed Sarkozy to drain part of Le Pen’s electorate, and raises questions over the longer-term impact of Le Pen and the FN on the political agenda in France.

Assessing France as a model of societal success

Abstract: In this article, we propose a definition of the elusive "French model" of societal success and explore its usefulness for understanding the forces shaping France's future. This model, we suggest, remains "statist-republicanist": its democracy revolves around the idea of republicanism, while its economy continues to rely heavily on market regulation and public intervention. We assess France's model of societal success, which requires exploring the country's long-term assets and liabilities for human development. We argue, first of all, that France relies on a combination of a high fertility rate, an excellent health care system, a low level of income inequalities, and "de-carbonized growth"; second, that it continues to have a major liability, namely, a shadow French model of cultural membership that sustains segregation and discrimination; and third, that it experiences an important decoupling between its profound socio-economic transformations, on the one hand, and its political discourse and representations of the polity, on the other.

The Future of French Culture

Abstract: For proof, one has only to consult a recent CEVIPOF survey (table 1) [slide], which shows that only 8 percent of the French believe that the country is making progress in general, versus 52 percent who believe that it is not. Nevertheless, a full 36 percent believe that France’s cultural influence is increasing, as against only 23 percent who believe the opposite. And yet these same French who maintain faith in their culture insist, by a margin of 48 to 19, that their schools and universities are declining in quality, and by a margin of 46 to 19 that their country’s influence in areas other than culture is on the wane.1