Getting Into Local Power The Politics of Ethnic Minorities in British and French Cities

by Garbaye, Romain

• ISBN13: 9781405126977
• ISBN10: 1405126973
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-12-23
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This book presents a comparison of the patterns of ethnic minority politics in British and French city politics. A comparison of the participation of ethnic minorities in British and French cities. Includes direct comparisons of particular cities Birmingham, Lille and Roubaix. Shows how ethnic and cultural diversity translates into political conflict in different political systems. Considers styles of political mobilisation of ethnic minorities in the context of urban political systems, as well as the strategies used by party leaders and to manage ethnic diversity in political competition. Analyses how ethnic and cultural diversity in urban societies translates into conflictual politics. Enhances our understanding of local politics and of the evolution of political representation in industrialised democracies.

Author Biography

Romain Garbaye is Maître de Conférences at the Université Paris IV-Sorbonne. He obtained his DPhil in Politics at the University of Oxford, and he has held a Jean Monnet post-doctoral fellowship at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Florence. He has published several journal articles and book chapters on the politics of ethnic minorities in European cities.

Table of Contents

List of Maps	ix
Foreword	x
Patrick Weil
Series Editors' Preface	xiv
Acknowledgements	xv
Introduction	1	(1)
The Election of Ethnic Minorities on European City Councils	1	(2)
Comparing Ethnic Minority Politics in Britain and France	3	(3)
Contrasting Levels of Representation and Modes of Access in the 1980s and 1990s	6	(7)
Towards an Analysis of Local Political Processes	13	(7)
Historical Institutionalism and the Comparison of Local Cases	20	(17)
Strategies of Management of Ethnic Conflict and Historical Institutionalism	20	(9)
Strategies of management of ethnic conflict	21	(4)
Historical institutionalism	25	(1)
Central and local factors	26	(3)
Birmingham, Lille and Roubaix, 1980s--2001	29	(3)
The Main Propositions and the Outline of the Book	32	(5)
The framing of debates on immigration and integration in national politics: 1945--2001	32	(2)
Contrasting local political systems	34	(3)
The British Policy Framework: Liberal Citizenship Regime, Depoliticization and the Race Relationism of British Cities	37	(26)
1948--1958: Pressure on Local Authorities and National Indifference	39	(5)
The beginning of mass migration	39	(2)
National apathy and local agitation	41	(3)
1958--1968: The Birth of the British Race Relations Policy Framework	44	(6)
Depoliticization	44	(2)
1965--1968: the first `race relations' policies	46	(3)
Consequences of the race relations framework on later patterns of minority participation	49	(1)
The 1970s and 1980s: The Legacy of the 1960s Settlement	50	(7)
The polarization of the 1970s	50	(1)
The Labour Party as the minorities' party -- until 2001?	51	(3)
The 1980s onwards: local Labour activism	54	(3)
The `Race Relationism' of British Cities in the 1980s and 1990s	57	(4)
Equal opportunities policies, city networks and the election of non-white councillors	57	(2)
Local variations	59	(2)
Conclusion	61	(2)
The French Policy Framework: Planned Migration, Xenophobic Politics and Durable Political Exclusion	63	(29)
1945--1973: State Planning and Unintended Effects	64	(6)
The 1945 framework and the generation gap	65	(3)
The unexpected arrival of extra-European immigrants	68	(1)
The management of North African populations by the central state	69	(1)
1974--1983: The Bureaucratic Management of Political Incertitude	70	(3)
From migrants to minorities	70	(1)
Struggling to define immigration policy	71	(2)
1983--1997: National and Local Politicization of Immigration in Xenophobic Terms	73	(13)
The Socialist Party and the failure of the Beur movement	74	(4)
The rise of the Front National and the contradictory reactions of party elites	78	(8)
The Construction of Consensus after 1997	86	(4)
Socialist policy innovations	86	(3)
The 2001 local elections	89	(1)
Conclusion	90	(2)
Birmingham, 1980s--2001: Inner-city Labour Politics and Pluri-ethnic Government	92	(52)
From Indifference to Multi-ethnic Coalition: The Birth of Ethnic Politics in Birmingham	95	(21)
Birmingham government: polycentric and partisan	95	(2)
A large, diverse and disadvantaged ethnic minority population	97	(6)
From indifference and hostility to pluri-ethnic government: 50 years of ethnic politics	103	(13)
Institutions and Activists: How Ethnic Minorities Penetrated the Labour Party	116	(26)
Styles of community organization	117	(5)
The political institutions of the inner city	122	(3)
Three styles of co-optation in Labour ward-level politics: from vote brokerage to independent councillors	125	(17)
Conclusion	142	(2)
Lille, 1980s--2001: Machine Politics and Exclusion of Minorities in the French Municipal System	144	(43)
Introduction	144	(3)
The Lille--Roubaix comparison	144	(1)
A strategy of avoidance and denial	145	(2)
Lille's Double Strategy of Externalization and Political Exclusion	147	(12)
The emergence of a North African minority	147	(3)
The municipality's policy of gentrification	150	(2)
The persistence of a social and ethnic `problem' in Lille	152	(3)
Social discontent in the political arena: Front National, republican universalism and minority disorganization	155	(4)
The French Municipal System, Machine Politics and Minority Exclusion in Lille	159	(26)
Municipal institutions in Lille	161	(3)
The 1980s: municipal politics and the failure of the Beur movement	164	(5)
The 1990s: machine politics and the marginalization of North African dissent	169	(10)
Relations between municipality and North African groups in the 1990s: patronage and dependence	179	(6)
Conclusion	185	(2)
Roubaix, 1980s--2001: Inclusion Through Neighbourhood Groups and an Open Municipal Game	187	(24)
Introduction	187	(1)
Urban Crisis, Migrations and the Political Management of the Crisis	188	(8)
From `Holy City of the Proletariat' to post-industrial crisis	188	(1)
A large population of Algerian descent	189	(2)
Roubaix identity, Front National vote and pro-minority policies	191	(4)
Institutions and generations of activists	195	(1)
Roubaix Political History and Immigrant Incorporation in the 1990s	196	(13)
Cross-party government and inclusion of migrants in the municipal community	197	(9)
North African activists in an open political game	206	(3)
Conclusion	209	(2)
Conclusion	211	(10)
Strengths and Limitations of Historical Institutionalism in Ethnic Minority Studies	211	(2)
The End of the Path: Muslim Anger in Britain and the Lingering Burden of Beur Failure in France	213	(4)
Ethnic Minorities and the Decline of the European Left	217	(1)
Local Strategies and their Unintended Effects	218	(3)
Appendix: Interviews and Sources	221	(2)
Notes	223	(17)
Bibliography	240	(16)
Index	256