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491. Price Level Convergence and Inflation in Europe

Author:
Gary Clyde Hufbauer, Erika Wada, and John H. Rogers
Publication Date:
01-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
Consumer price inflation in the euro area declined steadily during most of the 1990s. However, in the last two years, both headline and core inflation have risen throughout the area, and sizable cross-country differences in inflation have re-emerged. This is illustrated by Figure 1, which shows the headline consumer price inflation rate for the euro area as a whole and for select member countries. As of October 2000, all euro area countries had headline inflation rates above the European Central Bank's 2 percent medium-term ceiling, with rates ranging from 2.1 percent in France and Austria to 6 percent in Ireland. In Greece, which will join the euro area on 1 January 2001, inflation was 3.8 percent.
Topic:
Economics and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Europe, Greece, France, and Austria

492. Consumer Credit in the European Union

Author:
Nuria Diez Guardia
Publication Date:
02-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
This report analyses the European consumer credit markets and their regulation at European level. Its findings are as follows: European consumer credit markets are characterised by deep national differences and strong market segmentation. The report finds no generalised model of consumer credit from the analysis of statistical data. An Anglo-Saxon consumer credit model cannot be identified. The weight of consumer credit is far higher in the US economy than in the EU countries, including the UK. In the US, the share of consumer loans made by banks is much lower, securitisation of consumer credit assets is very developed and the share of revolving credit is much greater than in the EU countries. Nor is it possible, on account of the large differences in the use of consumer credit observed across EU countries, to identify a European model of consumer credit. Consumer credit is very widely used in Sweden, whereas it is underdeveloped in Greece and Italy. The use of consumer credit reaches comparatively high levels in Germany and the UK and an intermediate level in France and Spain. Lending to consumers is carried out through bank intermediation, crossborder provision is non-existent.
Topic:
Economics and Political Economy
Political Geography:
United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Greece, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy

493. Histoire Vs Mémoire En France Aujourd'hui

Author:
Jacques Revel
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
École des hautes études en sciences sociales Jusqu'à une époque très récente, l'expérience historique de la France et la mémoire dont elle était porteuse étaient pensées dans les termes d'une histoire; et cette histoire ne s'énonçait pas, elle ne se pensait pas n'importe comment: elle pouvait être diverse et contradictoire, mais elle avait ses formes et elle obéissait à des règles. Les choses ont bien changé. En grossissant et en simplifiant les choses, on pourrait dire que la France est devenue depuis une vingtaine d'années le lieu d'une entreprise mémorielle proliférante et multiforme. Une bonne part de notre traditionnelle activité narcissique-mais aussi de notre investissement sensible-a trouvé à se reconnaître dans la production de mémoire, sous toutes ses formes. J'en retiens trois, pour aller au plus simple.
Political Geography:
France

494. Women In The French Resistance: Revisiting the Historical Record

Author:
Claire Andrieu
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
If the Resistance as a whole is part of French identity, the different types of resistance, among them that of women, do not benefit from the same status. On the contrary, official commemorations of the Resistance are based upon two implicit statements: that the Resistance and the nation are somewhat equivalent - the Resistance being viewed as the uprising of the whole nation - and that to differentiate among the resisters would go against the very principles of the Resistance, its universalism, its refusal to make any distinction in race or origin. The assimilationism that is part of the ideology of the French Republic hinders the recognition of particularisms, whether regional, cultural or gendered. The Resistance has two national heroes, General de Gaulle since 1940, and Jean Moulin since 1964, both male and French. But no group has yet demanded the implementation of an affirmative action policy for the process of heroization. The French fear of multiculturalism -or any recognition of particularisms - could be sufficient to explain the slow development of women's studies in France, and indeed, the history of women resisters has not yet been studied as much as that of the Resistance as a whole. There were other factors that prevented it from developing. After reviewing the available bibliography, I propose some new directions of research which - as elementary and unsophisticated as they are - may break down some stereotypes and allow us to glimpse some aspects of the Resistance that traditional history has neglected.
Topic:
History
Political Geography:
France

495. Abdelmalek Sayad And The Double Absence: Toward a Total Sociology of Immigration

Author:
Emmanuelle Saada
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
At the time of his death, the sociologist of immigration Abdelmalek Sayad (1933-1998) was putting the final touches on a collection of his principal articles-since published under the title La Double Absence. The publication of this collection provides, I think, a good occasion for introducing Sayad to the anglophone public, which to date has had almost no exposure to his work. In France, Sayad's sociology has been essential not only to the study of Algerian immigration, but to the understanding of migration as a "fait social total," a total social fact, which reveals the anthropological and political foundations of contemporary societies. The introduction of this exceptional work to American specialists of French studies is timely, moreover, because immigration and more recently, colonization have been among the most dynamic areas of research in the field in the past few years.
Political Geography:
America and France

496. Dossier: Charting the Future of French Farming: Introduction

Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Farmers still count for a lot in France, despite their shrinking numbers. Scarcely four per cent of the workforce now earns a living in agriculture. Yet, every politician knows that the country has a huge stake in farming-France is second only to the United States as an agricultural exporter-and that farmer unions wield clout. Farmers have cultural leverage as well. Rolling fields and rural hamlets still figure prominently in most people's mental image of what makes France French and its social fabric whole. Even so, the future for many farmers is anything but secure. Global competition, EU enlargement, and scientific advances will continue to reshape the conditions of agricultural production and marketing. Farm subsidies could well diminish under pressure from trade negotiators or from voters at home who wish to put tax revenues to other purposes. Many a small family farm could go under for lack of young men and women willing to wager their futures on a farming career. Meanwhile, big growers will no doubt find ways to raise more food on less land with fewer hands. Ineluctable though these trends may be, however, French farmers have an impressive record of fighting back in the face of adversity. Their militance, combined with a strong tradition of state protection and public pride in the land and its products, make it certain that agriculture will remain one of the more important, and contentious, arenas of debate in the new century.
Topic:
Agriculture
Political Geography:
United States and France

497. Farming Visions : Agriculture in French Culture

Author:
Susan Carol Rogers
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Peasant Fever That Goes Beyond Corporatism," "Peasants: Old-Style and Modern." Such headlines led stories in the French press about the August 1999 attack on a MacDonald's deep in the French hinterlands by a group affiliated with the farmers union Confédération Paysanne. The incident, noted in the American press as a colorful example of Gallic excess, drew weeks of substantial and sympathetic attention from the French press and general public, inspired vocal support from politicians across the political spectrum, and catapulted the group's leader, José Bové, to the status of national hero. Part of the significance attributed in France to the event, as suggested by the headlines above, lay in claims that this action represented a radical new departure for farm organizations: unlike previous farmer protests-habitually no less symbolically-charged, well-orchestrated, or widely supported-this one, it was frequently said, spoke to issues of concern to society as a whole, not simply to the corporate interests of farmers.
Topic:
Agriculture
Political Geography:
America and France

498. Of Linguistic Jacobinism And Cultural Balkanization: Contemporary French Linguistic Politics in Historical Context

Author:
Paul Cohen
Publication Date:
06-2000
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
In few countries has language played a greater role in constituting national identity than in modern France. French is first and foremost a political idiom, enshrined by the leaders of the Revolution and the Third Republic as the language of the Republic and the Nation. The French state promotes the use of French at home and throughout the world through an array of government institutions, including the Académie française, the Ministry of Culture and the agencies responsible for France's francophonie policies. The French language also represents a highly charged common cultural ground marking the boundaries of French society.3 Whether in informal conversation and public debate, in annual rituals like Bernard Pivot's televised "concours de dictées," or on the editorial pages of national newspapers, the French betray an intense awareness of linguistic issues. The defense and illustration of French has long been for French intellectuals and leaders a passionate vocation.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
France

499. Domestic Constraints On French Nato Policy

Author:
Anand Menon
Publication Date:
06-2000
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Since 1966 and even before, the policies pursued by France toward NATO have been both the object of a certain amount of Gallic pride and the source of considerable confusion, not to say irritation, among France's partners. Why have these policies been pursued? The aim of this article is to address this question by means of an examination of the domestic pressures and constraints that have helped to shape France's policies toward NATO. It reveals a striking paradox: the decision-making arrangements that developed around and emerged out of de Gaulle's single-minded quest to achieve international independence for France were specifically designed to provide him with the freedom to pursue policies of his own choosing. They increasingly came, however, to hamstring the efforts of French political leaders to do likewise, particularly when, in the aftermath of the Cold War, they came to realize that traditional Gaullist policies were no longer serving France as well as they once had.
Topic:
NATO, Cold War, and Development
Political Geography:
France

500. Protestations Collectives D'une Minorité Socio-Économique En France

Author:
Frédéric Royall
Publication Date:
06-2000
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Le 7 janvier 1998 plus de 50 villes françaises sont touchées par des manifestations nationales de sans-emploi et de leurs sympathisants pour réclamer une amélioration du sort des chômeurs. Le 13 janvier 1998 une deuxième journée nationale de protestation regroupe plus de 50 000 manifestants et touche 76 départements. Le gouvernement ayant commis l'erreur de ne pas avoir pris très au sérieux ces manifestations se trouve rapidement obligé, au grand dam de sa politique budgétaire, de débloquer un milliard de francs en aides financières d'urgence. Près d'un an plus tard à Marseille, le 3 décembre 1998, de 10,000 à 15,000 personnes proclament haut et fort leur hostilité à la politique gouvernementale. La semaine suivante, le 10 décembre 1998, 2000 personnes défilent à Paris et près de 3000 autres manifestent à Marseille. Si ces journées nationales d'actions de décembre 1998 ont témoigné des capacités encore réelles de mobilisation des collectifs de chômeurs (sous forme de manifestations), les organisations de défense des chômeurs peinent à susciter ensuite l'enthousiasme de leurs militants et sympathisants et à dépasser le stade des agitations ponctuelles et localisées en se basant sur un répertoire d'actions collectives classiques.
Political Geography:
France