Christopher Flood

How Identity Interacts with Economic and Societal Rationality to Drive Public Opinion on the European Union. The Role of Crime, Unemployment and Immigration

Abstract This paper examines the relative power of identity and utilitarian explanations of the variation in public support for the European Union (EU) as well as the relationship these have with one another. Using Eurobarometer data from 1990 to 2007, the results in this paper demonstrate that contrary to previous research, national economic and societal utility calculations about the EU have greater explanatory power than identity issues. It is also found that unemployment, crime and exclusive national identity mediate the relationship between immigration and EU support. In the light of these findings, the article draws implications for politics at EU and national level.

Questions of decolonization and post-colonialism in the ideology of the French extreme right

The process of decolonization and its long-term consequences are central issues for extreme right-wing intellectuals grouped in, or ideologically close to, the Front National (FN).’ The meanings which these writers ascribe to the age of empire and to the post-imperial period feed into the controversy over non-European immigration into France. They also bear on extreme right-wing approaches to French foreign and defence policy, including relations with France’s remaining overseas territories and with former colonies. Furthermore, these questions are framed in the wider context of the extreme

National republican politics, intellectuals and the case of Pierre‐André Taguieff

This article examines the work of Pierre‐André Taguieff, a political analyst, historian of ideas and philosopher who has emerged as one of the leading intellectuals associated with national republicanism. Since Taguieff has always wanted to connect his scholarly work with his commitments as an activist‐intellectual, the article starts with a brief analysis of national republicanism as a political and intellectual movement which underpinned Jean‐Pierre Chevènements attempt to win the French presidency in 2002. Taguieffs work is then analysed in terms of its diagnosis of a range of problems affecting France and its attempt to promote a renewal of republican thought centred on the idea of strong democracy. The article concludes with comments on some of the policy dilemmas facing national republicanism, as articulated and exemplified by Taguieff.

Marcel Gauchet, Pierre-André Taguieff and the question of democracy in France:

As its starting-point this article situates the new reactionaries controversy in relation to recent intellectual debates on the alleged national crisis of confidence in Frances political and social models. The political ideas of Marcel Gauchet and Pierre-André Taguieff, two of the leading figures named by Daniel Lindenberg, are examined here to illustrate some key theoretical questions concerning the historical processes which have led to the current crisis, and the possible directions in which France could move in the future. Neither Gauchet nor Taguieff deserves to be labelled as a reactionary in the sense implied by Lindenberg. However they have both offered sophisticated perspectives on the problems of adaptation faced by France with regard to the practice of government, the evolution of democracy, changing patterns of civic participation, and the challenge of integrating ethnic minorities, during a period when Europeanization and globalization call the role of the nation-state itself into question.

The politics of counter-memory on the french extreme right

This article examines the forms, the modes of dissemination and some of the recent topics of revisionist historical writing in France’s extreme right-wing subculture today. Over the last two centuries shared understandings of French national history have structured the extreme right’s definition of itself as guardian of the national interest in opposition to other ideological families which came to constitute the political mainstream. Its adherents take pride in the strength and continuity of their intellectual tradition. Although the extreme right is largely excluded from historical debates in the journals or media outside its own milieu, its adherents shadow those debates, putting their own, different interpretations on the meaning of events to articulate what they consider to be authentic readings of the past and, hence, of the present. It is argued that this process, defined here as counter-memory, is essential to the maintenance of the subculture.

Defending the Empire in Retrospect: The Discourse of the Extreme Right

During the campaign for the European election of 1999 the Front National (FN) listed Charles de Gaulle, grandson of the General Charles de Gaulle, second on its list of candidates. This choice was described in the FN’s newspaper National hebdo as being motivated by the fact that the general’s conception of French sovereignty within a Europe of nations was shared by the FN.2 On the other hand, it was stated that the grandson’s candidature was also intended to symbolise national reconciliation and the gathering together of French people on behalf of their country. In this context national reconciliation evidently implied that the party itself should serve as an example, since the general had long remained an object of loathing among the extreme right after he had negotiated the independence of Algeria in 1962. The bitterness and resentment had been particularly acute among the former European inhabitants of Algeria who had been forced to take refuge in France, where many of them now voted for the FN.

Reconciling France: Jean Paulhan and the "Nouvelle Revue Francaise," 1953

Almost ten years after it had closed down in 1943, the prestigious review La Nouvelle Revue Frangaise reappeared on 1 January 1953. Superficially, the only change was in the additional adjective fixed to its title, La Nouvelle Nouvelle Revue Frangaise (hereafter designated as Nouvelle NRF). This was a literary and cultural event of great significance, since it was covered by a wide range of French, British, and other foreign newspapers and periodicals. Although its editors-Jean Paulhan and Marcel Arland-had hoped to resurrect their review without attracting controversy, news of its impending appearance triggered a bitter polemical attack from Frangois Mauriac, who, as director of the competitor-review La Table Ronde, viewed the resurrection as a threat and a scandal. What was so scandalous in 1953 was that the NRF-the review which had closed down in 1943 under the direction of Pierre Drieu la Rochelle-had been a leading cultural organ of the Collaboration. This had come about because in late 1940, after the Occupation began, the NRF had been considered such an important institution that Otto Abetz, Hitlers ambassador in Paris, insisted that it should start up again. Indeed, the Germans bestowed greater cultural preponderance upon the NRF than upon the venerable and pro-P6tain Revue des Deux Mondes. In 1953, therefore, the reappearance of the NRF was thought on the one hand to present an uncomfortable reminder of French intellectual collaboration with the occupier. On the other hand, Jean Paulhan and Marcel Arland believed that they were rendering a service by restoring an important pillar to the battered edifice of French cultural identity. Drawing on published and unpublished sources from the archives of Jean Paulhan, this article will retrace the major phases of the appearance of the Nouvelle NRF, and explain why this was so important in the national cultural context of the time.2

Nationalism or Nationism?: Pierre-André Taguieff and the Defense of the French Republic

This article examines the political ideas of Pierre-André Taguieff, one of France’s leading republican intellectuals. Taguieff has had a distinguished academic career as a historian of ideas, philosopher, and political analyst. Author of more than twenty books, he is frequently interviewed, and widely quoted, in the media. He has written important works on topics such as racism and antiracism, antisemitism, populism, the idea of progress, the integration of ethnic minorities, and the continuing validity of the republican model of the nation-state. Thematically, his work has shown strong elements of continuity, but there has been organic development as Taguieff has brought related topics into play to elaborate or move beyond those he has examined previously. The main axis of his writing is analytical. He traces the history of political concepts and explores their contemporary variants. However, because his work also bears the stamp of his ideological commitments, Taguieff engages with current controversies and proposes remedies to the political problems that he examines, although he does this more often in terms of general principles than of specific policy proposals. The article has two parts. The first of these outlines the overall shape and intellectual style of Taguieff’s work. The second part takes a more critical approach, arguing that Taguieff’s increasingly defensive positions on a range of domestic and international issues—coupled with a tendency to take refuge in polemics against the political correctness and intellectual conformism of the age—threaten to swamp the more open, constructive, and innovative dimensions of his political thought.

Propaganda, Totalitarianism and Film

Taylor and Francis Ltd FTMP_A_196238.sgm 10.1080/14690760600963321 otalitarian Movements and Political Religions 469-0764 (pri t)/1743-9647 (online) Origin l Article 2 06 & Francis 740 000200 udorGeorges u mpr_r view @yahoo.co.uk Randall Bytwerk, Bending Spines: The Propaganda of Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic, East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2004. pp.228, £15.-, ISBN: 0870137107.

The Political Context: International and Domestic Security Concerns

The call to a Global War on Terror was logically implausible but rhetorically effective in its propagandistic evocation of a worldwide threat which required a resolute response. It conjured up a binary world of friends and enemies. Who, except the practitioners or sponsors of terror(ism), could eschew the challenge to destroy the sources of this evil? In the real sphere of international politics the concept of a Global War on Terror was as disingenuous as it was simplistic, but as a mobilizing ideological slogan or as a shorthand label it was endlessly reproduced in the Western media, preparing the way for George W. Bush’s doctrine of pre-emptive war against the rogue states deemed to support terrorism. It set the tone of international relations for the remainder of Bush’s presidency, before the terminology was discarded by Barack Obama’s new administration in 2009, even though many of the associated policies remained in place (Zalman and Clarke, 2009). While it was current, the apparent success of the Global War on Terror as a political watchword also offered other states the opportunity to identify their policies towards troublesome neighbours and/or hostile groups within their own borders as part of the global struggle. The Global War on Terror extended in principle to any source of terrorism. However, the focus of discourse and policy was heavily concentrated on radical, anti-Western Muslim groups and the states which aided them. Huntington’s ‘clash of civilizations’ threatened to turn from myth into reality.