Textbooks
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Books: Textbooks
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This chapter reflects on the book’s findings, with an emphasis on assessing France’s strengths and weaknesses in comparative perspective and probing the idea of French exceptionalism. It finds that France has much in common with many countries in Europe and beyond, particularly its exposure to external challenges and forces, and the difficulties of politically satisfying its domestic population. It asks whether the Fifth French Republic is coming to an end, and what a Sixth Republic might bring. The chapter notes that France remains a country of much interest for scholars in and outside France.
This chapter first explores the politics of culture in contemporary France. This revolves around the role of the state in fostering, regulating, promoting and protecting cultural norms at home and abroad. We emphasize the examples of language and cinema to illustrate our arguments. Cultural politics and policy are products of their time, and in today’s France reckonings with the recent past and the near future are relevant to current thinking. Second, the chapter surveys the cultural practices, behaviours and aspirations of the French, and shows that notions of lifestyle are as much part of the image that France projects as its claims to exceptional creativity and heritage. The chapter concludes with an emphasis on the complexity that lies behind the dominant, stereotypical images of French culture. Virtually all aspects of French cultural life have a market and often international dimension, and tales of decline are apocryphal. In France, history has commercial value, as does the heritage business, and culture – its practice, its value, its significance – is closely linked to the evolution of French society at large.
This chapter begins with exploring the idea of a French model of political economy. For many years, France was deemed exceptional for the way it framed its political economy in the terms of its republican ethos, and for the role of the state in piloting economy towards these goals. France is also notorious for conflictual relations between labour and capital. The chapter explores the specifics of these characteristics, from state planning, patronage and regulation to the place of organized labour in the economy, the business environment and the workplace. The chapter shows that, over time, the trend has been towards less not more regulation of market forces and of the labour market itself, with consequences for social cohesion and equality. This trend links to the transformations brought about by the costs, constraints and opportunities of France’s EU membership whereby France’s economy has in particular been tightly bound to that of its neighbour, Germany, and into which President Macron has put his faith when facing the grand challenges of the present and future, from averting climate catastrophe to harnessing advanced technology. The second part of the chapter analyses this uneasy balance between the domestic and European dimensions of France’s economy.
This chapter addresses key aspects of French national identity. The first is territory – the physical manifestation of France – and challenges to its integrity from open borders, transport, digital technologies and human mobility, among other factors. The rurality that typified French life well into the 20th century has put French agriculture and its produce on a political and cultural pedestal but many living in rural areas feel like second-class citizens, neglected by the state and its services, and their grievances fuelled the gilets jaunes movement of 2018–19. The discussion includes an evaluation of how France is placed to withstand the challenges of climate change and energy insecurity, and explore the responses crafted by French leaders at national and international levels. Second, it then focuses on the French themselves – who are they, where are they from, who belongs and who does not? This includes an overview of questions of race, ethnicity, culture and religion and of policy on immigration, nationality and citizenship. The chapter reflects on the balance of these forces currently shaping France and the French within the bounds of their own country and nation.
This chapter first reviews the many dimensions of the Gaullist legacy that still resonate in French foreign policy and identifies the limitations of that legacy. Second, it explores French strategy regarding its place in the new world disorder that has unfolded at speed in the first three decades of the 21st century. This strategy for national resilience leads the chapter to, third, analyse the domestic dimensions of France’s action abroad, past and present, asking how today’s French leaders should engage with the legacies of their predecessors; where apologies are due and what form should they take; how to tackle the vicious blowback from its actions abroad in the shape of domestic unrest, violence and terrorism; and how to incorporate multiple voices and interests from across society into the discussion of France’s place in the world. The chapter investigates these dynamics and the responses they have generated, including declarations of repentance and regret by the state for past actions.
The chapter first tackles government in the narrow sense of France’s Paris-based political institutions, which form a semi-presidential regime where political power is highly concentrated in the president of the Republic. Over time, presidential power has become consolidated in the constitution and presidents wield it even when they lack a supportive parliamentary majority. A parallel trend is for declining belief in the presidency itself, and the chapter explores the significance of these developments, alongside a discussion of the ways in which the French executive is scrutinized and held to account. Second, the chapter expands its perspective to analyse the actors, processes and mechanisms that constitute the French policy-making environment at supranational, national, regional and local levels. Can France still be classified as a state-centric model of administration, historically wary of so-called intermediaries between the state and the people? Third, the chapter asks whether French public policy can still uphold the ‘indivisible republic’, given the many decentralization reforms implemented since the 1980s that have created opportunities for political competition and differentiation at various levels, especially the region. Finally, the chapter assesses the sovereignty of France’s policy-making powers in the light of the obligations of France’s EU membership and the process of Europeanization.
This chapter reviews the emergence of the modern French nation-state from the Roman Empire, tracking its evolution into the ancien régime of the medieval and Renaissance monarchy that laid the foundations for today’s strong, centralized state. It analyzes the eruption of patriotic nationalism associated with the 1789 French Revolution, and the sense of exceptionalism that it has bequeathed to contemporary France. The chapter then focuses on the exceptional transformations undergone by France from the mid- to late 20th century to today’s post-Cold War era, emphasizing the reconstruction of French identity undertaken by Charles de Gaulle in the 1960s, and the 21st-century challenges to the French sense of national self. The 20th century challenged the very identity and existence of France, and existential angst is a problem that current politicians have not fully banished from their mindsets. The chapter balances images of political chaos with a sense of the conservative and continuous forces that are just as much part of the legacy of France’s past. It ends with a discussion of the violent repercussions and distortions – the legacies – of France’s history that continue to reverberate through the country today and prevent any sense of complacency about the past.
This chapter starts with a snapshot of images and stereotypes of France that persist to the present day, before exposing the complexity and realities that lie below that surface. It then provides a detailed overview of each of the chapters in the book, outlining the comparative perspective of the book, but concludes by making the case for the significance of studying a single country – here, France – in depth.
The chapter begins by surveying the core characteristics of French political culture that have bred a sense of ‘exceptionalism’ in French politics. The chapter then reviews how political parties and voters have evolved over the decades, exploring the very meanings of ‘left’ and ‘right’ in a political system dominated until as late as the 1990s by the influences of Gaullism and communism. It then assesses parties and movements on what are no longer the margins of French politics, driven by charismatic figures who fit into pre-republican traditions of political leadership. It then turns to the issues currently finding political expression in France, including the climate emergency and measures to address it; the insecurities arising from antisocial behaviour and terrorism; differences around France’s place in the world; and the scandals and ethics of public life. It reviews the forms that political action in these matters is taking, both at grassroots and official levels: alongside attempts at direct democracy (‘great debates’, citizens’ conventions and greater scope for referenda), these include violence perpetrated by protesters and the state alike, yet more relics from France’s historical repertoires of political action.
This chapter first reviews the social structures that typify contemporary France – matters of family, gender, sexuality and age – and asks how the state has responded to an evolving population in all these regards. It then examines the realities of France’s secular identity, framed by the concept known as la laïcité. La laïcité is declared but not defined or guaranteed in Article 1 of the constitution; all religions and faiths in France coexist within the boundaries of this secular state. La laïcité therefore refers to the constitutional and legal framework that separates religious affairs from public life in contemporary France. Finally, the chapter investigates the education system. This is designed to improve an individual’s opportunity to lead a life that is both fulfilled and economically productive, and to knit a peaceful, thriving, prosperous, democratic and French society. In this sphere, too, France has a history of strong state intervention whereby the state has sought to integrate children into a single, French nation with a strong republican and secular identity. The chapter closes by identifying the trends in contemporary French debate that shape the debate and policy on French society and identity.
