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The 2017 Presidential elections in France brought victory for President Emmanuel Macron, founder of a new party declaring itself above left and right, La Republique en Marche. The Parliamentary ele...

Gary Browning’s book is a highly ambitious and at times challenging exploration of the history of modern political thought, which is lengthy, detailed and erudite. From the reader’s point of view i...

This chapter discusses in a general way the nature of the relationship between democracy and elections, followed by some thoughts about the peculiarities of French politics and the rise of 'consensus politics' over the past quarter century. It examines the results of the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2002 and the aspects which seem to indicate widespread disillusionment on the part of electors, namely withdrawal from the electoral process and votes for marginal candidates. The main conclusion one must draw from the elections of 2002 is that the French are at the beginning of the twenty-first century far more disillusioned with formal politics and far more in a mood for protest than was the case a decade or so ago. The chapter argues that in all liberal democracies political institutions and structures allow a degree of participation by ordinary people in deciding between different political agendas.

The most significant result of the 2012 elections in France was the ejection of Nicolas Sarkozy from the Elysee Palace, in part because of his unpopularity as an individual but also because his policies often seemed to benefit the rich at the expense of the poor. The victory of Francois Hollande in the presidential elections and the Socialists in the parliamentary elections was also historic, because this was the first time since 1995 that there has been both Socialist President and a mainly Socialist government. The Socialist manifesto included promises of economic growth, progressive taxation, capping certain high salaries, job creation and a lower age of retirement. All this put France at odds to some extent with the dominant countries in Europe. Indeed, the economic crisis is crucial to understanding the election campaign and results and almost a third of the electorate voted either to the right or to the left of mainstream parties. The extreme right Front national did particularly well, campaigning o...

Badiou has re-launched the debate amongst intellectuals regarding the viability and the desirability of communism, insisting that now is the time to begin to take the idea of communism seriously again. This is an important move, especially as he contrasts a more generic form of communism with the "actually existing" communism of the twentieth century. Indeed, Badiou's own philosophical schema is bound up with notions of equality and emancipation. However, unlike Marx, Badiou is unable properly to relate his notion of communism to the material world. He shares with Marx a passion for many kinds of equality, but retains some pre-Marxian idealism, which allows no room for a fully fledged unity of theory and practice.Badiou a relance le debat parmi les intellectuels a propos de la viabilite et l'interět du communisme, en insistant qu'il est temps de prendre au serieux l'idee du communisme a nouveau. C'est une demarche importante, en particulier parce qu'il fait un contraste entre une forme de communisme pluto...

The victory of Nicolas Sarkozy and his party in the elections of 2007 is best explained by reference to the notion of Bonapartism, which has a long history in French politics. Sarkozy's authoritarian populism, with its right- and far-right-leaning ideology and programme, nevertheless has eclectic references, which helped undermine other candidates and parties. In particular, the National Front was greatly weakened by Sarkozy, as he carefully incorporated into his campaign language and views which would appeal to FN voters. The Socialists, meanwhile, were fraught with divisions and despite Segolene Royal emerging from the elections with a respectable result and the PS overall with an increased number of seats in the Assemblee nationale, they were well short of victory. This will produce further self-analysis for the PS and questions as to how to re-invent the party as a more credible governmental force. The elections were disappointing for the far left, particularly after the strong results in 2002, but vo...

In his theory of the event, Alain Badiou argues that the realm of politics is particularly important. Drawing to an extent on Marx, Lenin and Mao, he argues that true politics is revolutionary, or at least ‘eventmental’. Badiou's political thought places great emphasis on the role of the agent of change — the subject — but he argues controversially that subjecthood in politics as well as in other domains comes only after the event has taken place, leaving the potential subject in a highly passive position before the event has taken place. He has relinquished some but not all of Marx's materialist and historical approach, in favour of a more idealist approach influenced in part by Plato, with the effect that his theory of politics is rather disjointed. Badiou's uneasy blend of idealism and materialism means that he has at times highly unorthodox things to say about the notion of democracy and has uneven positions regarding both parliamentary politics and political activism. A lonely, committed voice in contemporary France, Badiou's theory of politics nevertheless offers a rare opportunity to engage with a thinker who is attempting to offer a new philosophy of praxis.

Alain Badiou's thought combines reflexions on notions of the event, subject, truth and being, in a system that is among the most innovative in Western philosophy today. Influenced both by classical philosophy and by modern French theorists such as Althusser and Lacan, Badiou insists nevertheless that philosophy must learn to be a tool that is subordinate to, albeit uniquely placed to understand, developments in the crucial realms of science, art, emancipatory politics and love. His theory is also shaped by many years of political activism, broadly speaking in a spirit of faithfulness to the legacy of May 1968. All of this constitutes a considerable departure from much contemporary philosophy, which, in one way or another, tends to confirm the legitimacy of the established order. However, despite Badiou's intention to explain change in the form of events and their consequences, his theory does not seem able to account adequately for movement, which is a serious shortcoming.

This article examines the emergence and growth of various protest movements in France over the past decade and attempts to explain their success by locating them both within the country's current political economy and within that of advanced capitalist countries more generally. It suggests that however diverse the movements might be, there are certainly common themes, and, in particular, there is widespread opposition to neo‐liberal economic policy and its social consequences. The article also discusses contemporary theories that address the question of the nature of today's global political economy and social structures, interpret the contemporary socio‐economic and political era as being quite different from the postwar period, and that shed some light on the significance and potential of the protest movements. Finally, it explores the idea that activists in recent years have often implicitly or explicitly campaigned for deeper democracy, to the extent that they have argued for a far greater ongoing rol...

Cet article evoque l'evolution recente de la pensee intellectuelle francaise des annees 70 a nos jours. L'A. analyse l'emergence d'une pensee liberale depuis Tocqueville, distincte de la pensee anglo-saxone, et qui s'est construite sur une depolitisation croissante de la population centree des lors sur une conception individualiste de la societe

The results of the Presidential elections of April-May 1995 confirm that there are currently two parallel trends in French politics. On the one hand the mainstream left and mainstream right are increasingly contesting the middle ground, and a majority of voters accept this. On the other hand, a substantial minority of the electorate is keen to protest against the inability of any of the major parties to remedy France's socio-economic ills, and therefore votes for the marginal parties, the parties of dissension and protest.

Retail banking is traditionally highly labour-intensive and employment in the industry has been rising steadily for many years. However, new technology is now being introduced which is beginning to have an impact on levels of employment. In the European Economic Community it is likely that productivity will increase only slightly faster than demand up to 1990 and that employment will not fall substantially. After that date, it will almost certainly fall faster. Negotiations between management and unions, at a national and international level, should ensure that the introduction of new labour-saving technology be complemented by reductions in working time and the creation of more stimulating, labour-intensive positions.