CIAO DATE: 08/2008
Volume: 23, Issue: 2
Summer 2005
The Politics Of Publishing During The Second Empire: The Trial of Madame Bovary Revisited*
Christine Haynes
The limited objections raised by members of the book trade to the press law at the time of the trial of Madame Bovary serve to highlight some fundamental characteristics and contradictions of liberalism in mid-nineteenth-century France. In general, liberalism in this time and place emphasized commercial freedom and property rights, at the expense of freedom of speech. In contrast to Anglo-American liberals, French liberals readily sacrificed this last freedom in the interest of "order," which was deemed necessary to promote the growth of commerce. As some of the most recent scholarship on the political culture of the Second Empire (and early- to mid-nineteenth-century France more generally) has shown, property, alongside education, was the main priority for liberals. It was only because property and education seemed to require it that freedom of the press eventually became important to French liberals and republicans. Intellectual freedom entered the political culture, for authors and publishers as well as statesmen, only through the back door of economic liberalism.
Le Portugal De Salazar Et La Droite Extrême Française, 1928-1945
Frederic Rozeira de Mariz
La curiosité de l'érudit et du reporter a progressivement fait place à l'admiration pour la renaissance nationale. Les intellectuels d'extrême droite allèrent parfois jusqu'à penser s'inspirer des réalisations de l'Estado Novo, mais l'expérience salazariste était trop spécifique aux yeux des maurrassiens. L'effacement et le calme de Salazar ne pouvaient contenter les plus extrémistes. Le Portugal des années trente, avec ses mythes-l'âge d'or, le complot, le sauveur et l'unité nationale-offrait un cadre conceptuel rassurant. Ces intellectuels de droite-qu'on les qualifie de fascistes ou non-sont fascinés par ce qui apparaît comme le formidable redressement du pays et la personnalité de son chef. Cependant, leurs descriptions restent assez superficielles, et les échanges culturels entre les deux pays sont décevants. Sur le plan politique, on ne trouve pas d'exemple abouti de collaboration, même si l'expérience corporatiste suscite un intérêt certain du côté français.
Jospin, Political Cohabitation And Left Governance
John P. Willerton, Martin Carrier
This article illuminates the record of the Gauche Plurielle (GP) and Jospin-led coalition government-built upon a diverse parliamentary majority opposed by a sitting president-to construct a coherent political program and realize unanticipated policy-making achievements. Contrary to past cohabitation regimes and most Fifth Republic presidential-prime ministerial teams composed of officials from the same political party, the 1997-2002 Gauche Plurielle government retained power for its entire five-year elected mandate while advancing an aggressive domestic socio-economic agenda. The GP program, which Lionel Jospin termed a "réalisme de gauche," would combine Socialist Party (PS) commitments to social justice with economic growth and Communist Party (PCF) concerns over a heightened minimum wage and serious youth employment efforts. The allied Greens and other Left factions would be provided the opportunity to win seats in the National Assembly (in the Greens' case, for the first time) with an ability to influence policy making in their areas of special interest. Overall, the early years of the Left-Greens coalition would see the construction of major initiatives upon which all partners generally agreed, with pressures on the coalition becoming more evident in subsequent years as hard policy choices-reflective of the dominant PS-increasingly troubled the smaller partners.
From Mondavi To Depardieu: The Global/Local Politics Of Wine
Diane Barthel-Bouchier, Lauretta Clough
This article examines this crisis in wine production through the prism of one Languedocien village faced with a decision of utmost economic and social significance. In 2000-2001, the California winemaker Robert Mondavi tried to buy land in the village of Aniane in order to build a winery that would produce wine of exceptional quality. The Mondavi company was already installed nearby in Montpellier as a purchaser of wines to be incorporated into its own blend under the label of Vichon Méditerranée. Its representative, David Pearson, was well acquainted with the local political scene. What Pearson and Mondavi appear to have underestimated, however, was the symbolic significance that would be attached to their attempt to purchase land in Aniane. For the land they wanted to buy was not private but communal, and they weren't ordinary winemakers but representatives of an American-owned multinational corporation.
Penser L'impensable: Le 11 Septembre Des Penseurs Français
François Lagarde
La guerre américaine en Iraq était annoncée, et on a eu le temps d'en parler et de lui trouver une causalité ou une finalité, ou au contraire une illégalité ou une immoralité. L'attentat du 11 septembre 2001 survint sans que l'on s'y attende, et c'est après l'événement subit qu'il fallut le penser, dans " l'inappropriablité, l'imprévisibilité, la surprise absolue, l'incompréhension, le risque de méprise, la nouveauté inanticipable, la singularité pure, l'absence d'horizon ", comme le dit Derrida.
On a eu du mal à voir, à ressentir le 11 Septembre en France à cause des distances géographiques et culturelles et à cause de la télévision, et on est resté sans quoi dire. On a d'abord pensé à soi-ramener l'événement à soi, pour la réassurance. Puis on s'est détourné du lieu, de l'événement du 11 Septembre, pour en penser la date, l'histoire, les origines et on s'est davantage intéressé aux auteurs de l'attentat qu'aux victimes. On découvrit alors, dans ce qui était au commencement impensable, une historicité, une légitimité, une rationalité, une possible bonté de la terreur.
"Leur Histoire Est Notre Histoire": Immigrant Culture In France Between Visibility And Invisibility
Brigitte Jelen
This article explores the tensions inherent in the implementation of specific spaces dedicated to the celebration of immigrant cultures in a nation based on an assimilationist model of citizenship.5 More specifically, it analyzes the possibilities for the recognition and visibility of cultural differences in a society where such differences are expected to remain socially invisible and limited to the private sphere. To illustrate this discussion in the historical context of post-colonial France, I will turn to the three most significant cultural projects implemented by the French government to acknowledge and make immigrant cultures visible: in 1977, Mosaïque, in 1984, Les Enfants de l'immigration, and finally, in 2004, the Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration.
Anti-Americanisms In France
Sophie Meunier
Why do the French appear as incorrigible anti-Americans? Why is France singled out as a bastion of systematic opposition to US policies? Anti-Americanism can be defined as an unfavorable predisposition towards the United States, which leads individuals to interpret American actions through pre-existing views and negative stereotypes, irrespectively of the facts.8 It is based on a belief that there is something fundamentally wrong at the essence of what is America. This unfavorable predisposition manifests itself in beliefs, attitudes and rhetoric, which may or may not affect political behavior. Is France, according to this definition, anti-American? It is difficult in practice to distinguish between genuine anti-Americanism (disposition) and genuine criticism of the United States (opinion). It is partly because of this definitional ambiguity that France appears more anti-American than its European partners. While it is not clear that the French have a stronger negative predisposition against the US, they do have stronger opinions about America for at least three main reasons: the deep reservoir of anti-American arguments accumulated over the centuries; the simultaneous coexistence of a variety of types of anti-Americanism; and the costless ways in which anti-Americanism has been used for political benefit. This article explores each of these three features in turn, before discussing briefly the consequences of French anti-Americanism on world politics.