Number of results to display per page
Search Results
35002. Two Reluctant Regionalizers? The European Union and Russia in Europe's North
- Author:
- Hiski Haukkala
- Publication Date:
- 01-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- It has become something of a cliché to argue that the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 resulted in dramatic changes in the unfolding of political space in the 1990s. Yet this was especially true in the case of the then European Community (EC) and its relations with the Soviet Union/Russian Federation. During the Cold War, the relations between the EC and the USSR were practically non-existent. The ascension of Mikhail Gorbachev and the period of perestroika and glasnost resulted, however, in a gradual rapprochement between the two parties. The creation of these new ties was formalized in the signing of a Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) between the EC and the USSR, which was, however, in effect signed with an already crumbling Soviet Union as it took place as late as 21 December 1989.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Development, Economics, and Regional Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, Asia, and Soviet Union
35003. Immigration the Salience of Racial Boundaries Among French Workers
- Author:
- Michèle Lamont
- Publication Date:
- 03-2001
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- This essay revisits the question of French racism by examining the differing status of North African immigrants and blacks as victims of French racism. I draw on in-depth interviews with French workers and on national surveys to show that French workers draw stronger boundaries toward immigrants—and more specifically North African immigrants—than toward blacks. I advance an explanation for the lower salience of this latter group that takes into consideration the cultural resources that workers have access to and to the structural and historical context in which they live. In particular, I suggest that because it is based on assimilation, the French political culture of Republicanism provides special ammunition for arguments against North Africans: It presumes (and aims to achieve) a national community with overlapping cultural and political boundaries, such that all members of the national community share the same political culture, which de facto distinguishes the national in-group from out-groups. At the same time, this widely available ideology weakens the boundaries drawn against blacks by affirming the principle of color blindness and the irrelevance of ascribed characteristics in the French polity.
- Topic:
- Immigration
- Political Geography:
- North Africa
35004. Globalization and French Cultural Identity
- Author:
- Philip H. Gordon and Sophie Meunier
- Publication Date:
- 03-2001
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Concerns about the potentially negative effects of globalization are particularly salient in France because of France's longstanding desire to maintain a universal culture and concomitant fear of cultural domination. This article analyzes the impact of globalization on various aspects of French culture-including the entertainment industry (movies, audiovisuals, and books), food, and language-and shows why the French resist globalization more on cultural than economic grounds. The article also looks at French policy responses to the cultural "threat" of globalization and argues that those policies are both less effective and less necessary than many French seem to think.
- Topic:
- Economics and Globalization
- Political Geography:
- France
35005. La Corruption politique: un mal français
- Author:
- Éric Dupin
- Publication Date:
- 03-2001
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- This article examines why political corruption has become not only more visible in the past twenty years in France, but also more serious as a problem. After looking briefly at changes in the role of the judiciary and the media, the author focuses on issues of campaign finance and the economic insecurities electoral officials often face in the current political system. Psychological factors have mattered as well. Too many members of the political elite have assumed that political power entitled them to material advantages and exemption from conventional standards of ethical conduct. The concentration of power and weak boundaries between political, economic, and administrative elites have made the problem particularly acute in France.
- Topic:
- Economics
- Political Geography:
- France
35006. Réponse
- Author:
- Gisèle Sapiro
- Publication Date:
- 03-2001
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Comprendre les conduites politiques des écrivains français pendant l'occupation allemande à la lumière des logiques propres au monde des lettres, tel était l'objet de ma recherche. Ce questionnement s'inscrivait à la fois contre la logique du jugement et du procès qui l'a longtemps emporté sur l'analyse distanciée, comme le rappelle Steven Ungar, et contre une histoire politique des intellectuels qui tendait à négliger les facteurs non politiques de leur engagement, en particulier ceux qui relèvent plus spécifiquement de leur activité professionnelle. Ces deux tendances illustrent les effets induits par la surpolitisation de ces années de guerre sur la perception rétrospective qu'on en a. Certes, la surpolitisation de tous les domaines de l'existence pendant l'Occupation est un fait indéniable qui a des conséquences immédiates en ce qu'il modifie l'espace des possibles et les contraintes qui pèsent sur les individus, ainsi que la signification sociale des comportements (des comportements apolitiques peuvent ainsi prendre un sens politique indépendamment du sens que leur donnent les acteurs). Mais cela n'implique pas que les motivations ou les logiques d'action ressortissent au seul registre politique.
35007. Change and Resistance in the Fight Against Corruption
- Publication Date:
- 03-2001
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Although political corruption in France is hardly new, only at the end of the twentieth century have public authorities made important efforts to address it. This article explains why, stressing underlying economic conditions in the 1980s and 1990s and changes in the composition and norms in the judicial, police, and administrative professions. The author goes on to argue that despite the publicity given to recent scandals, the attack on corruption remains restrained and politicians of both the Left and the Right remain ambivalent about facing the problem.
- Topic:
- Economics
- Political Geography:
- France
35008. Méry de Paris
- Author:
- Paul Jankowski
- Publication Date:
- 03-2001
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Méry de Paris places the scandal that erupted in Paris last autumn in historical perspective. It examines the system of political financing that Méry's "confession" revealed, as well the threat it posed to President Chirac, in the light of corruption scandals in French history since the Revolution. The article explores the structural roots of recent and distant corruption and the widely differing political consequences its revelation can bring, and thus seeks to ask whether today's scandals differ from those of yesterday, and if so, how. Forum: La Guerre des écrivains (1940-1953), Gisèle Sapiro (Paris : Fayard, 1999)
- Political Geography:
- Paris
35009. Politiques de l'écrivain ou politiques de l'écriture ?
- Author:
- Laurent Jeanpierre
- Publication Date:
- 03-2001
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Disons-le d'emblée : l'ouvrage de Gisèle Sapiro est impressionnant. Issu d'une thèse de sociologie dirigée par Pierre Bourdieu1, il s'imposera comme une référence. Il intègre un ensemble de travaux qui se sont penchés depuis une vingtaine d'années sur les lettres françaises pendant la guerre et inclut de nombreuses archives inédites. Il représente un des accomplissements récents les plus aboutis en matière de sociologie historique des intellectuels.
35010. Vichy: Beyond the Syndrome Syndrome?
- Author:
- Steven Ungar
- Publication Date:
- 03-2001
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Henry Rousso's The Vichy Syndrome (1987) has changed the way many people think and write about France since 1940. Yet it is likely that the term "syndrome" (from the Greek sundromos or "running together") in his title remains a provocation because it invokes a pattern of behavior linked to disease and abnormality By extension, it conveyed an implied accusation—perhaps even an indictment—concerning an inability on the part of France as nation and society to confront the nature of the 1940-1944 period. Among historians, debate on the data or evidence that the concept of syndrome might legitimize or even privilege with regard to the writing of history added to questions about what had prompted Rousso to level this critique against colleagues in the discipline.
- Political Geography:
- France