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This paper argues that the current COVID-19 pandemic reveals and in a sense crystallizes a series of long-standing tensions about sovereignty that have become increasingly salient in the advanced capitalist democracies of the European Union. The spread of the pandemic led first to the activation of a conflict between a 'sovereigntist reflex' privileging the expression of national capacities and national self-reliance and a more 'perforated' understanding of sovereignty stressing the interdependence of peoples and states, both geographically and institutionally. As the response to COVID itself became more politicized we see the emergence of a second tension, between a libertarian 'reflex' supporting a residual state protecting liberties and facilitating individual choice and a sovereign-statist 'instinct', calling for an empowered guardian of the public good capable of ensuring collective security. A third tension relates to the seemingly growing opposition between a conception of sovereignty founded (and contingent) upon the will of the people and one in which the sovereign is, simultaneously, the discerner, defender and ultimate guarantor of the public good. After having mapped out these interwoven tensions and their main fault lines in general terms, the paper proceeds comparatively, tracking and tracing their (differential and specific) presence in governmental responses in two advanced capitalist democracies, France and Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Israel's relationship with the West during the first half of the 1950s was not a walk in the park. Economic relations fitted into this general picture. Both Britain and France were sceptical as far as Israel's potential was concerned. Their early prognoses tended to be quite gloomy. Simultaneously, economic relations provided a convenient communication channel at a time when overt association with the Jewish state was not desirable. The progress in Franco-Israeli economic ties during the years 1953-1955 illustrates this ambivalence in full. While prudence remained, the increase in bilateral trade managed to warrant the military supplies. Britain, constituting a traditional market, surpassed France as a trading partner. Given British political aloofness, the instrument of trade served primarily its immediate economic purpose. Based on archival sources gathered in all of the three countries, the paper traces the interplay of trade and diplomacy in the early years of Israel's foreign relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of a study of American, British and Canadian records, this article examines the relationship of France to the negotiation of the North Atlantic Treaty from the perspective of the ‘ABC’ countries, particularly Canada. How did the perceived vulnerability of France influence the approach of the members of the ‘North Atlantic Triangle’ to the justification, timing and contents of the proposed pact? How did France's inclusion in Western Union and its exclusion from the preliminary talks in the Pentagon affect American, British and Canadian attitudes to the development of the draft alternatively known as the ‘Pentagon Paper’ or the ‘State Department Draft’? These questions are addressed, as well as the impact on the later ambassadorial talks of France's priority to immediate rearmament and its determination to include the departments of Algeria within the defensive perimeter of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Finally, the article assesses the extent to which France and its requirements influenced the policies and actions of the Canadian government throughout the negotiation of the North Atlantic Treaty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper analyses the impact of technological and national-culture factors on certain HRM policies and practices in Britain and France. This perspective supports the neo-contingency approach, which does not claim primacy for either the technological or the national-cultural factors shaping HRM policies and practices. HR managers in each country in high-, mid- and low-tech firms were surveyed. The relevance in the diffusion of certain patterns of HRM policies and practices advocates that employees working in intensive technology firms need a creative and adaptive HR management approach. The differences found in the application of the HRM practices studied between the two countries are illustrated through the educational system, which is different in France and Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brexit has been a game-changer for Britain, and its key partners. Strategic shifts as well as historic relations have impacted the UK's relationship with France in a number of unexpected ways. This article explores some of the key historical events that have caused both agreement and strife between the two states, looking at the bilateral treaties established to deepen cooperation on security and defence, specifically the Lancaster House agreements, and considers the series of intriguing accords and conventions that have arisen from the mid-1980s, as well as the logistical challenges of the shared border and juxtaposed border controls of Britain and France. Post-Brexit diplomatic forums in which Britain and France are joined by Germany are then explored, before assessing Britain's attempts to forge its new role in relation to long-standing commitments to France and an evolving relationship with the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With more than 10 million Muslims living in Western Europe, states are struggling to accommodate the religious needs of Muslims in state-supported institutions. Such issues include whether to fund separate Islamic schools and how or whether to teach Islam in state-supported schools. Despite these common concerns, national governments vary widely in their response to the religious needs and practices of Muslim citizens and permanent residents. This paper looks at how Britain, France and Germany have resolved these issues. We explore how pre-existing Church-State practices and institutional arrangements structured the politics of state accommodation of Muslims' religious needs in each country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europeanization, differentiated from European integration as the impact of European policies on national policies, practices, and politics, has had differing effects on EU member states, depending upon a number of independent variables. These include the constraints imposed by EU decisions in any given policy area, that is, whether the decisions demand that countries follow highly specified rules of implementation, less specified rules, suggested rules, or no rules at all. But adjustment also depends upon certain mediating factors, including countries' vulnerability to global as well as European economic pressures, their political institutional capacity to respond as necessary, the 'fit' of European policies with national policy legacies and preferences, and the discourses that influence policy preferences by changing perceptions of economic vulnerabilities and policies and thereby enhance capacity. Only by putting the decision constraints together with the mediating factors can we adequately explain countries' differential policy outcomes, whether inertia, absorption, or transformation. To illustrate, this paper considers three countries, France, Britain, and Germany, across a representative range of economic policy areas, including monetary policy, financial services, telecommunications, electricity, transport, and mutual recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The British and French communist movements have rarely been an object of comparison, partly because of the huge difference in fortunes enjoyed by the two parties. However, one important similarity between these neighbours was the size and importance of the countries' coal industries, as well as the militancy of their mining communities, where communism took root as a serious political and cultural force. This article examines acts of solidarity by British and French Communists during the most important miners' strikes of their parties' existence: the General Strike and Lockout of 1926, the French miners' action of 1948, and the British miners' last great struggle of 1984-1985. Through the study of archival documents, the press and other sources, we explore how these disputes constitute important moments in the history of British and French communism, as well as of their countries' respective labour movements. The dispute of 1984-1985 marks a culminating point that confirms the strengths and weaknesses of British and French communism's relationship with the miners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article looks at the British response to the French decision to re-integrate into the military structures of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance. It outlines the official Whitehall position, expressed by officials within the British Ministry of Defence, that welcomes the decision as a sign that France has strategically converged onto the British position as outlined in the UK 1997/8 Strategic Defence Review. An alternative view, set out by prominent members of the British establishment and supported by the work of think tanks, notes that the most striking feature is the lack of any coherent British response. This view emphasises the ad hoc nature of contemporary British defence policy, its lack of strategic reflection and the prominence of many unanswered questions vis-a-vis British defence policy more generally. The article ends by suggesting that contemporary Franco-British defence cooperation is likely to be dictated more by the pragmatic requirements of budgetary stringency than power political considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One lesson of the failed Constitutional Treaty was that the European Union is unlikely to be an exception to a general rule that attempts to constitutionalize polities according to liberal democratic values provoke disagreement about the relative weight that should be given to the empowerment or the constraint of institutions. Just how that cleavage developed in practice is illustrated using a discourse analysis of attempts by the British and French governments to justify the Constitutional Treaty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labour courts in many European countries have a tripartite structure, with a professional judge sitting with employer and employee lay judges. This article focuses on employee judges, who face a potential conflict between their partisan role defending workers and their role as an impartial judge. Using cognitive dissonance as our theoretical framework and drawing on over a 100 interviews in three European countries, we found that many British and German interviewees said that they had not experienced any conflict of interests. Others, however, reported such conflict, especially initially, and demonstrated adaptation strategies that appeared consistent with cognitive dissonance theory. Moreover, there were national variations: conflict in France appeared more pervasive and enduring than in Britain or Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use linked employer–employee data to examine the relationship between non-pecuniary job quality and workplace characteristics in Britain and France: countries with very different employment regimes. Job quality is measured through eight dimensions which are summarized in a synthetic index. We show that firm size is negatively associated with non-pecuniary job quality in both countries, but in France, the association is confined to only the largest firms. Internal labour markets are associated with higher job quality in France along numerous dimensions but do not improve job quality in Britain except on one dimension: they reduce the adverse effects of work on one's private life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective bargaining is widely advocated as one means of addressing continued gender pay disparities. However, since collective bargaining has been weakened as a mode of employment regulation, its efficacy relative to statutory regulation is a matter of debate. This article examines the relationship between collective bargaining and the law and the impact of bargaining content and structures on gender equality outcomes, by focusing on France and the United Kingdom, two European Union (EU) countries which have markedly different collective bargaining traditions and structures, contrasting legal traditions and different gender regimes. The comparison highlights the respective contributions of supportive legislation, bargaining structures and bargaining equity as drivers of change, emphasizing the particular importance of supportive legislation in the two countries, as well as the particular vulnerability of UK gains (in the context of recessionary conditions, a voluntaristic approach and a weakened and localized bargaining framework) and the weakness of bargaining in relation in France, in the context of supportive legislation but inadequate legal enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the comparison between French and British radicalism, with particular focus on the difference in regimes and strategies for pursuing democratic reform. It states that the differences in French and British radicalism explain the greater revolutionary and violent characteristics of radical action in France, with Chartist movement achieved higher level of national unity. It says that the differences between the two radicalim were seen mainly on their radical activity.

The article traces the images of America's three foremost European allies in US public opinion over the course of the Presidency of George W. Bush. Public country images are seen to consist of a valence and a salience dimension. Employing a mix of opinion polls and media content data, the article locates the country images under study within this two-dimensional space. It finds that US relations with Britain, Germany and France rest on rather different foundations in the American public: the British image displays both the most positive valence and the highest salience; the valence of the German image is the second most positive but its image is the least salient; the French image has the least positive valence, and its salience takes on a middle position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use nationally representative workplace surveys to examine the relationship between unionization and workplace financial performance in Britain and France. We find that union bargaining is detrimental to workplace performance in both countries. However, in Britain the effect is confined to the declining proportion of unionized workplaces where there is active collective bargaining. In the French case, the effect is confined to the minority of cases where unions have high density and to unions with a reputation for militancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evacuation of the British Army from Dunkirk in 1940 has an iconic place in British culture. This article draws on a concept of popular memory that suggests that rival versions of the past compete for cultural centrality, to ask how Dunkirk acquired this position. During the war, accounts stressed the importance of the sea in the ‘deliverance’, but while some focused on the Navy, others concentrated on the civilian small boats, and criticism was rare. Immediately postwar there was a lull in representations. In the 1950s, attention switched to the land and to the problematic place of the defeated Army in the story, culminating in Ealing Studios’ film Dunkirk (1958). Ealing attempted to synthesize previous emphases and struggled to achieve agreement about the representation of the evacuation. The film ensured the public prominence of the memory of Dunkirk, yet its reception was fractured along class and gender lines, indicating the instabilities of Ealing’s negotiated consensus. The history of the contested inscription of Dunkirk in British culture emphasizes that at no point since the events occurred has the representation of the second world war been secure; the popular memory of the war is continually subject to construction, contestation and revision. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Increased academic attention has been drawn to democratisation in higher education, following the implementation of affirmative action in America. However, the models of Access policies presented by certain European educational systems deserve more attention. France and Britain share a common position on elitism, although they define it according to very different principles: on the one hand, France emphases the old model of meritocracy through academic performance, whereas in Britain, some institutions still tend to favour a more hereditary transmission of ethos. A comprehensive comparison of 'positive discrimination' and Outreach policies allows us to try and rebuild the political conditions (and debates) around the implementation of these policies, which now target individuals rather than the usual macrosocial or territorial categories. Regulation patterns - although not yet finalised - reveal to some extent a general willingness for 'potential and ability assessment', which would make recruitment systems for higher education in both France and Britain less socially exclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his seminal work, Kirchheimer (1966) argued that as larger parties transformed into catch-all parties we would see the disappearance of small parties. We know, however , that Green parties are one example of small parties that have persisted in many European party systems. In this article, I seek to explain this inconsistency. I argue that Kirchheimer did not anticipate the development and growth of the New Politics agenda or of Green parties. These parties, moreover , have endured because of their desire to gain electoral representation and maintain their distinct policy positions. To test this argument, I examine the electoral strategies and policy preferences of the British and French Green parties over the past decade. The results confirm my hypotheses. The findings not only update Kirchheimer's theory, but also have important implications for our understanding of Green party behaviour and potential for longevity more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses the responses of three established European powers, France, Britain and Germany, to a world of rising regional hegemons. It argues that Europe as a region remains unique as it consists of three regional powers of similar material and ideational power resources and is the most institutionalised region worldwide. The current transformation of world power configurations, debated in competing visions of global order, challenges Europe's central place. Facing gradual marginalisation, the foreign policy adaptations of Germany, Britain and France have been insufficient and remarkably static. Old foreign policy identities still play a significant part in European self-perceptions. However, views are gradually changing as the world becomes more heterogeneous. Among the emerging regional powers, China, India and Russia are perceived as decisive global players. Other rising powers are viewed as mainly regional and, hence, more manageable actors. Finally, the article calls for a general shift in European attitudes towards the non-European world and argues that European powers should overcome traditional Euro-centric world views. Rather, they should start to engage with rising powers in a serious discourse over common global responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The French state-levy system of ongoing training at work has not provided greater access for women than the laissez-faire British system. While headlines figures suggest that women receive more training than men in Britain and that the gap has also closed for well-qualified women in France, qualitative analysis shows that this does not indicate greater gender equity. The societal effect approach is useful for cross-national comparison within the sphere of economic organization but must be combined with analysis of the gender order to account for differences and similarities in social reproduction. The case of the insurance industry provides detailed empirical evidence of the issues underlying this, particularly women's availability for ongoing training at work. The situation of women in each country is inextricably linked to a complex interdependence of a multitude of variables, some of which are similar, such as the workings of patriarchy, and some of which are different, such as state configurations of childcare infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Britain, the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act has revolutionized the regulation of party finance after several half-hearted failures at attempted reform. In France, a series of high-profile corruption scandals in the 1980s and 1990s provoked a bout of 'legislative incontinence' — resulting in over eight laws in seven years, which profoundly transformed the regime regulating party finance. The comparative analysis of reforms in each country presented here questions the utility of crude 'constitutional engineering' theories, and the notion of party system 'cartelization' by major parties, neither of which offers a wholly convincing account of the paths of reform in Britain and France. It explores the use of new institutionalist theories as a comparative framework and concludes that these provide a cogent explanation for the alternative paths taken by each country with party finance regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]