The End of the French Exception? Decline and Revival of the 'French Model'

by Chafer, Tony; Godin, Emmanuel

• ISBN13: 9780230220782
• ISBN10: 0230220789
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-07-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Analyzes the notion of the French exception and the ways in which it has informed both academic analysis and political commentary on France today. Adopting a comparative and interdisciplinary approach it examines the resilience of the notion of French exceptionalism and evaluates its relevance in a changing domestic and global context.

Author Biography

TONY CHAFER is Professor of Contemporary French Area Studies at the University of Portsmouth, UK. He is a founder member of the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France and has published widely on contemporary France and Franco-African relations in the late colonial and post-colonial era.

EMMANUEL GODIN is Principal Lecturer in French and European Studies at the University of Portsmouth, UK. His current research interest is the extreme right in Europe.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figure	p. ix
Notes on Contributors	p. x
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
The French Exception: Rise and Fall of a Saint-Simonian Discourse	p. 17
The French State	p. 37
Reviving the French Exception? Sarkozy, Authoritarian Populism and the Bonapartist Tradition	p. 39
Social Policy and France's 'Exceptional' Social Model	p. 55
'L'exception culturelle'	p. 72
Conflicts and Polarisation	p. 85
The French Extreme Left and the Persistence of a Revolutionary Myth	p. 87
French Euroscepticism and the Construction of National Exceptionalism	p. 105
Citizenship and the Republican Model	p. 123
French Immigration Policy in Comparative Perspective	p. 125
France, Islam and Laïcité Colonial Exceptions, Contemporary Reinventions and European Congvergence	p. 153
From Private Lives to Intimate Revelations: Politicians and the Media in Contemporary France	p. 171
France as a Universal Model	p. 185
France, Europe and the Limits of Exceptionalism	p. 187
Back to the Future? Franco-African Relations in the Shadow of France's Colonial Past	p. 203
The French Exception Seen from Abroad	p. 221
A View from the South. France in African Eyes: Universalism and Francophonie Reassessed	p. 223
Conclusion: French Exceptionalism Reconsidered	p. 237
French Exceptionalism and the Sarkozy Presidency	p. 239
Bibliography	p. 251
Index	p. 271
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