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Some legal scholars have asserted that rigid notions of homosexual identity shape adjudicators' approach when evaluating asylum claims based on sexual orientation. Recent ethnographic research at the French Court of Asylum, in charge of reviewing appeals on decisions from the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons, shows indeed that adjudication is based on particular gender stereotypes. However, my analysis centers on an unexplored but related issue: the relationship between the problems raised by adjudicators when facing what they call 'intimacy cases,' specifically regarding the administration of proof and stereotyped performances. Through ethnographic data drawn from encounters with adjudicators and asylum seekers at the French Court of Asylum; through interviews with judges, rapporteurs (reporters), interpreters, and lawyers; and by examining 60 court rulings, I argue that sexual orientation-based cases crystallize the importance of intimacy in the politics of asylum, helping to seize the new shapes of the refugee as well as the growing difficulties for judges in relying on material evidence. [asylum, sexual orientation, intimacy, proof, France] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues that the iconic 'Je suis Charlie' slogan is representative of a typically French political tradition which is imbued with colonialist remnants and state racism. In the first section I delineate the ancestry of 'Je suis Charlie' in the French political imaginary; I then examine the ethics of identification through the prism of French assimilationism and republican principles; the third section develops the argument that 'Je suis Charlie' is a pledge of allegiance within the context of the Clash of Civilizations; and finally the Charlie event is contextualized within the current French political reactionary environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

French popularity functions are under-studied, at least when as compared to vote functions. After a first wave of studies conducted in the wake of Lafay's pioneering work, scholarly works on French popularity functions have been few and far between in the last two decades. And this, despite the fact that public opinion data on French popularity have been collected systematically for a long time. What is more, all the popularity function work conducted to date has made use of either the IFOP measure of satisfaction or the Sofres confidence measure as its dependent variable. In this article we build a popularity function for the French executive that compares results obtained with each of these two related, but somewhat different, monthly measures of presidential popularity. We do this comparison for the time period where the two popularity measures overlap (1978-2012). The results indicate that both survey measures are indeed similar but different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a historical overview and critical appraisal of the evolution of policy analysis in France. It presents and discusses the development of policy analysis in France since the 1970s. Although, its origins are clearly rooted in the sociology of organization, it was first institutionalized within the field of political science. Especially since the late 1990s, a number of textbooks have been published, while several journals started to take policy analysis more seriously. Research has developed strongly in this context with a stress on sector-level studies. The field is today internationalised, more than most other subfields of French political science. This may account for the rather difficult relations between policy analysis and 'mainstream' French political science. Finally, French policy analysis maintains a certain number of specificities. There is a strong preference for qualitative methods and 'cognitive' approaches that contrast with research elsewhere. It is also characterised by strong emphasis on the historical dimension of policymaking and the interest in critical theory. These specificities may be only temporary, however, and not survive further international integration of French policy analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decentralization has been a matter of partisan divide in most European countries in the past decades, usually supported by parties excluded from power or with a strong territorialized support. On the basis of an analysis of party discourse and legislative behaviour and the concerned literature, this article aims to interpret the changes to regional governance and powers enacted in France in the last 5 years, in the light of decade-long political competition on this dimension. The laws no. 2010-1563 and 2015-29 aimed to rationalize a cumbersome and costly local government system. They confirm the divisive nature of territorial government reform in a majoritarian political system such as France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the possible improvement in France-Algeria relations which is highlighted in the high-profile visit of French Prime Minister Francois Hollande to Algiers in December 2012. Topics discussed include the perception of Algerian media on the visit of Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal to Paris in December, the military cooperation against the Islamic State, and the economic exchanges between the two countries. The sources of Algerian mistrust of France's intentions are cited.

The past decade has seen a dynamic and contradictory treatment of difference in French policy-making, both nationally and locally. However, the means by which local difference orientated policies redefine the national is understudied. This article bridges this gap with a case study analysis of Marseille and Lyon to assess and typologize the ways that difference is deployed in local policy to influence, contest and negotiate the discursive performance and construction of the nation. Of particular importance here are modes of municipal governance, the influence of European government and the co-option of local voluntary groups into policy. This article concludes that both Marseille and Lyon provide rich examples of not only how municipalities are increasingly concerned with the notion of difference in policy-making, but also how their policies and engagement with local actors in dealing with nationally salient issues might lead to a redefinition of the national. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Language & Law / Revista de Llengua i Dret is the property of Revista de Llengua i Dret and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article heavily references the 2015 French fictional book "Soumission/Submission," by Michel Houellebecq to discuss French politics, the relationship between politics and Islam and Islamophobia in France. An overview of Houellebecq's perspective on Muslims in France, including the relationship between French political elites and French Muslims, is provided. An overview of the French Socialist Party member and French President François Hollande's political future, including in regard to the 2017 French presidential election, is also provided.

In winning the municipal elections of March 2014, France's mainstream opposition—the Centrists and the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP)—benefited not only from the unpopularity of the Left in power, but also from its own (partial) reconstruction. The Centrists had reorganised; the UMP had reaffirmed its right-wing programme and drawn strength from the opposition social movements launched in 2013. The European elections of 2014, however, demonstrated the limitations of this reconstruction. Their weak institutionalisation—the original sin of France's Right and centre-Right—left internal ideological differences and (above all) personal rivalries unchecked within both forces. These tensions were compounded, in the UMP, by a series of financial scandals. At their heart was former president Nicolas Sarkozy, still the activists' darling, ever more clearly a candidate for 2017, but also more hobbled by judicial investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the first two years of François Hollande's presidential term from a leadership perspective. The central argument is that while Hollande has sometimes been unlucky in the face of unanticipated events and severely constrained by contextual factors outside of his control, notably France's low levels of economic growth, he has also displayed a lack of certain essential leadership qualities. He failed to grasp the scale of the economic situation in the early months of his tenure and so lost precious time in fully addressing the need for structural reforms and engaging in a persuasive pedagogic narrative. In addition, his public communication—an essential leadership quality in the era of mediatised politics—has been poor. Hollande's attempt to relaunch his presidential leadership following the disastrous set of mid-term election results in 2014 marks the start of a new phase in his tenure of the office. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of French Africa policy have traditionally focused on its neo-colonial basis and the often corrupt nature of the relations it engendered because of the connivances of semi-official and unofficial networks and covert practices that characterised it. These are often referred to in the literature as la Françafrique. In seeking to understand François Hollande's Africa policy this article moves away from a neo-colonial, Françafrique analytical framework and instead seeks to engage with the continuity versus change debate in French Africa policy through the lens of geopolitics. The three central themes of Hollande's Africa policy—security, partnership and trade—are analysed, focusing firstly on the French interventions in Africa, notably in Mali, since 2012, before discussing French engagement with African regional organisations, such as the Economic Community of West African States, and the increasing importance attached to economic and trade links. The article ends with a brief survey of some of the challenges facing French Africa policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the gravity and reasons for the crisis currently affecting the French Socialist Party. Going beyond the electoral disasters of 2014, it situates this crisis within the context of the destabilisation of the French party system due to growing divisions on the left and on the right caused by the evolution of the European Union in the current context of economic crisis. The left/right cleavage that structures the functioning of the political system is being called into question by an alternative cleavage that increasingly opposes the supporters of European integration against their opponents. The cross-cutting nature of these two cleavages will henceforth prevent the left from uniting on a programme of government. Within the Socialist Party itself this phenomenon is a factor of serious division and, as a result, makes the government's parliamentary base more fragile. It further deepens the long-standing differences on economic policy because of the explicit choice made by the Socialist government in favour of a supply-side approach. The Socialist Party seems to have arrived at the end of a political cycle where it will have to make choices that it has postponed for many years, with the risk of breaking up and with the threat of starting an electoral and political decline that could ultimately deprive it of its status as a party of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented to this special issue dedicated to topics related to the administration of French President François Hollande for the years from 2012 to 2014.

This paper investigates why and how French and German leaders converged on an agreement for reforming the European Monetary Union in response to the outbreak of the debt crisis in Europe. To answer these questions, we begin by revising Putnam's two-level game in order to offer a constructivist account of the politics of ‘grand bargains’ in the European Union. The Eurozone negotiations, we argue, are better viewed as a simultaneous double game in which preferences are constructed and reconfigured as leaders address simultaneously the other European decision makers and their own constituencies. In a discursive institutionalist perspective, a frame analysis is conducted on the basis of press conference speeches and press interviews in 2011 and 2012. It is demonstrated that the Franco-German agreements on new policy and institutional arrangements were only possible because the respective leaders resorted to differing discourses in terms of paradigms, norms and values. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The notion of distinct ‘public’ and ‘private’ spheres underpins much normative and practical engagement with political misconduct. What is less clear is whether citizens draw distinctions between misdemeanours in the ‘public’ and ‘private’ spheres, and whether they judge these in systematically different ways. This paper explores attitudes to political misconduct in France. French citizens are often said to be particularly relaxed about politicians’ private affairs, but there has been little empirical evidence for this proposition. Drawing on original survey data, this paper demonstrates clearly that French citizens draw a sharp distinction between politicians’ public and private transgressions, and are more tolerant of the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On 11 January 2013, French president François Hollande justified a military intervention in Mali on the basis of the possible collapse of the Malian state, which faced an armed rebellion in the north of the country. Thus, the war was authorized and explained by the inability of the Malian government to respond to the threat. However, explanations and analyses that focus on security hide more than they reveal, including the ontological aims of the war and its identity stakes. To uncover these aspects, this article articulates the interaction between, on the one hand, the deployment of international violence, and, on the other, the construction of the state and the political imagination in Mali. This article concludes that peace in Mali was sought through the militarization of democratic governance, effectively reinforcing the prewar governance model. Unlike analyses focused on security, this article demonstrates that the boundaries and limits of the Malian conflict are not only territorial but also ideological and identity-based. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

France, like Poland, is still far from the Lisbon goal of a 75 percent employment rate of the active population between fifteen and sixty-four. At around 40 percent, the senior employment rate is much too low in both countries. Successive French governments have tried to implement various measures at a national level. None have provided the expected return on investment. Meanwhile, conditions for retirement have been modified several times. Some changes induced longer work and/ or contribution periods, while others facilitated early retirement--subject to certain conditions with either a positive or a negative impact on future pensions, depending on the type of modification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impressive result obtained by Marine Le Pen in the 2012 presidential elections has raised many questions regarding her ability to break the glass ceiling which many had thought unreachable for the Front National (FN). For some, this progression in the polls was a consequence of the softening of the discourse of the party and Le Pen moving away from her father's more radical stance. However, the fact that this rise came after five years of Sarkozist presidency should not be underestimated, and the context following Sarkozy's 2007 election can be seen as partly responsible for the FN reaching new heights. What this article will argue is that the new status acquired by the FN in 2012 was dramatically facilitated by the campaign by the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), which continued the legitimisation of the Le Pens' party rhetoric and allowed it to enter the selective category of respectable, ‘democratic’ and ‘republican’ parties. To highlight this development, this article will focus on three themes: the exaggerated state of crisis, the use of populism and the vilification of Islam through the use of neo-racist rhetoric by both the UMP and the FN. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The concept of 'divided government' is more complicated than scholars have allowed. In the USA, truly unified government, where the president enjoys a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate as well as a majority in the House, is rare. In France, truly unified government has been more common, but divided government has also occurred several times. Democratic governance requires that parties address important issues and they do so regardless of the patterns of institutional control. Nevertheless, policy changes or important laws are affected by the higher level of institutional friction associated with divided government. Looking at both the USA and France, we find that periods of unified government show higher levels of production of important laws in the USA, but we find no difference for overall legislative productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2014 EU elections in France have been mostly marked by the victory for the extreme right wing party Front National. This paper goes back to the main components of this feared victory for the French Socialist government. It notably stresses how deeply the "protest vote" played in these polls. In a second part, the paper focuses on the main consequences of this victory for the role of France in the European Union and its institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Vereinte Nationen is the property of Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The introduction explores the politics and political economy of austerity in comparative perspective, setting out the context of current austerity policies and discourse in Europe. It places the specific exploration of the dynamics and particularities of French austerity politics under Hollande within a broader context of changes since the 1980s to democratic institutions and electoral practices, the politics of European integration and the conditions of complex economic interdependence resulting from processes of deregulation, liberalisation and globalisation. It establishes the rationale behind the focus of the articles in this special issue on, firstly, the link between popular approval of elected politicians, democratic legitimacy and austerity; secondly, the politics and dynamics of state reform processes at the national and subnational levels which are integral to delivering on austerity-oriented commitments to reduce public expenditure; and thirdly, on the increasingly asymmetrical Franco-German relationship whose changing contours have major implications for the politics of austerity in Europe - notably facilitating the dominance of German ordo-liberal economic ideas at the heart of Eurozone crisis responses initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates why François Hollande, the new French President, has become so quickly unpopular after his electoral victory in May 2012. We ask whether this has to do with a lack of effective policy change compared with the 10 preceding years of conservative government and the context of economic crisis. We assess the impact of political alternation and the crisis on policy change and then look at the consequences for popularity ratings. The main results show that Hollande does not seem to be greatly different from previous presidents as the great recession has apparently not dramatically changed the dynamics of French politics. The crucial changes seem to occur before, in the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article situates analysis of French macroeconomic policy developments under Hollande's presidency within a wider context of macroeconomic policy autonomy under conditions of capital mobility, and the political economy of European economic governance. It focuses on the crucial Franco-German relationship because of its centrality to the evolution of the euro since its inception. The analysis unearths different state traditions informing the distinct economic ideas about austerity, economic policy, economic governance and regulation that underpin French and German visions for future European economic integration and European economic policy. It establishes the historical and ideational conditions of German approaches to European integration and European Monetary Union, and how these have shaped continuities within French European economic strategy, and Hollande's approach to the architecture of the euro, focusing in particular on fiscal policy dimensions and their recent evolutions. The discussion explores the foundations of German veto power within European agreements by 'kicking the tyres' of the German ordo-liberal political economic settlement and its social underpinnings, finding evidence of corrosive tendencies of declining mass party support linked to anaemic output and productivity growth, rising inequality and deficient demand undermining German export surpluses. Yet, time is an important factor in politics, and these corrosive tendencies are unlikely to generate a change in Franco-German relations during Hollande's Presidential tenure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are States in contemporary Europe subject to new forms of convergence under the impact of economic crisis, enhanced European steering and international monitoring? Or is the evolution of governance (national and sub-national) driven fundamentally by diverging, mainly domestic pressures? Drawing on extensive new data, the article combines analysis of the State Modernisation and Decentralisation reform programmes of the Hollande-Ayrault administration, drawing comparisons where appropriate with the previous Sarkozy regime. The limits of President Hollande's anti-Sarkozy method were demonstrated in the first 2 years; framing state reform and decentralisation in negative terms prevented the emergence of a coherent legitimising discourse. The empirical data is interpreted with reference to a comparative 'States of Convergence' framework, which is conceptualised as a heuristic device for analysing variation between places, countries and policy fields. The article concludes that the forces of hard convergence are gaining ground, as economic, epistemic and European pressures continually challenge the forces of institutional inertia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses French politics and the administration of President François Hollande. The author reflects on Hollande's unpopularity the centralization of French political culture. Emphasis is given to topics related to foreign policy such as the alliance with the U.S., Hollande's support for sanctions against Iran, and French intervention against Islamic terrorists in Mali.

An interview with the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Laurent Fabius is presented. Fabius mentions the causes for which he fights, notable people he admires such as the late French President François Mitterand, and the fall of communism through the actions of several actors including Pope Jean-Paul II. Additional topics discussed include France's diplomatic role, the situation in Iraq and Lebanon, the development of Iran's nuclear power, and Russia's affirmation as a power.

This article aims at making an operative use of the deliberative framework as a means to examine the formation of public opinion in western democracies. It focuses and reflects mainly on Iris Marion Young's conception of asymmetrical reciprocity, which challenges the typical understanding of imagining oneself in the place of the other as the way to make a judgment regarding the situation of the other, I suggest that Iris Marion Young's proposal of asymmetry has important implications for democratic contexts that seek to take pluralism, liberty and equality in the official discourses seriously. In order to prove it I examine the public debate on the Islamic Veil that has been developing in the European Context, particularly in France, throughout the last few years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Pouvoirs is the property of Editions du Seuil and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Pouvoirs is the property of Editions du Seuil and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)