French Politics, Culture & Society

The French elections of 2012 resulted in an unprecedented and overwhelming victory by France's Socialist Party, which gained control of the presidency and an absolute majority in the National Assembly to go with the party's existing domination of most of France's regions and municipalities. But the Socialist Party remains a minority party in the French electoral body politic, its victory the result of a skewered two-ballot electoral system. The Socialist government, moreover, remains hampered in its action by its obligations toward the European Union and its participation in the zone of countries using the Euro as it attempts to deal with France's economic crisis. As a consequence of both of these phenomena the government may also be sitting atop a profound political crisis characterized by the alienation of a good part of the electorate from the political system.

The presidential election of 2012 produced a high turn-out. Only 20 percent of the electorate abstained. This significant mobilization, however, hides renewed social inequalities in political participation that seemed to have previously disappeared. Based on national and local data surveys, this paper shows that certain kinds of people are less likely to vote than the average citizen. While traditionally more prone to abstain than other voters, many young, poorly educated, and suburban people participated in the presidential election in 2007, but not in 2012. In this later case, they seem to have not been interested in the electoral campaign.

Several women vied to be elected France's new president in 2012. These included Ségolène Royal, former Socialist presidential candidate in 2007, and Martine Aubry, Socialist party leader. Both these women were defeated by Fran?ois Hollande in the Socialist primary. In the main election, Marine le Pen garnered many headlines as the new leader of the controversial far-right party, the Front national. This article considers the campaigns and the media coverage of these women, as well as highlights the impact for women of the scandal surrounding disgraced politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The policy proposals of the different candidates are evaluated, before concluding with a discussion of the future prospects for women. There is some evidence of progress for women since the previous election, but women are still far from achieving full political equality in France.

By comparison with 2002 and 2007, does the 2012 presidential election reveal significant changes in French media functioning and their relations with the political sphere? To answer this question, this article challenges four statements heard during the campaign. They deal with the contribution of the media to François Hollande's victory, the way journalists reported on the campaign, the role played by the polls and finally, the candidates' strategies in media agenda setting. Even if the features traditionally ascribed to the French media (social proximity between journalists and politicians, importance of state regulation and public service, orientation toward the intellectual viewpoint in the patterns of media coverage) have not completely vanished, they describe reality less and less. Indeed, as shown in the article, both the media and the political sphere are today subjected to a converging process of rationalization that transforms their practices and mutual relations.

The 2012 French presidential election witnessed an increase in discussion about the European Union and its policies. To an equal degree the two top contenders, Nicolas Sarkozy and Fran?ois Hollande, criticized European policies and made promises to rectify EU mistakes, if elected. European institutions and decisions became scapegoats for domestic failures and tough economic choices, reflecting a long-term surge in Euroscepticism among French voters, especially in comparison to EU averages. Both candidates sought advantage by engaging in “EU-Negative“ campaigns to be able to mobilize as many potential voters as possible. Surprisingly, a half-year of EU criticisms has not led, at least in the short term, to a further increase in anti-EU positions in the public opinion.

This article explores cultural traditions from a little-known corner of the francophone world, what specialists call Franco-America. It represents a fertile site for reexamination of francophone postcolonial cultures. Beginning in the nineteenth century, French Canadians traveled to New England mill towns in search of work, established ethnic communities, and progressively became Franco-Americans. Today, endogamous Franco enclaves have all but disappeared, but French cultural expressions persist. Jack Kerouac is the most wellknown representative of this obscure French life. Franco-American written cultures, the focus of this essay, shed light on a distinct immigrant experience in the United States.

J’ai fait partie de ceux qui attendaient avec une réelle impatience la sortie du dernier film de Rachid Bouchareb. Je n’avais pourtant guère apprécié le message et l’esthétique du film Indigènes, présenté comme le prologue de Hors-la-Loi, et encore moins la reprise du « Chant des Africains » par les acteurs récompensés lors du Festival de Cannes en 2006. Chant qui, rappelons-le, était devenu un hymne colonialiste durant la révolution algérienne et qui fut interdit dans l’armée française sous la présidence de Charles de Gaulle. Après 1962, il appartiendra au patrimoine des nostalgiques de l’Algérie colonisée.

Eugenia C. Kiesling The Legacy of the French Revolutionary Wars: The Nation-in-Arms in French Republican Memory by Alan Forrest

Holly Grout Colette’s Republic: Work, Gender, and Popular Culture in France, 1870–1914 by Patricia A. Tilburg

Laird Boswell Alsace to the Alsatians? Visions and Divisions of Alsatian Regionalism, 1870–1939 by Christopher J. Fischer

Rosemary Wakeman Paris Under Water: How the City of Light Survived the Great Flood of 1910 by Jeffrey H. Jackson

Nicole Rudolph Internationalism, National Identities, and Study Abroad by Whitney Walton

Carolyn J. Eichner Colonial Metropolis: The Urban Grounds of Anti-Imperialism and Feminism in Interwar Paris by Jennifer Anne Boittin

Robert Zaretsky The French Who Fought for Hitler: Memories from the Outcasts by Philippe Carrard

Paul V. Dutton Conflicts of Interest and the Future of Medicine: The United States, France, and Japan by Marc A. Rodwin

James Shields Party Competition Between Unequals: Strategies and Electoral Fortunes in Western Europe by Bonnie M. Meguid

Jonathan Laurence Secularism and State Policies Toward Religion: The United States, France and Turkey by Ahmet T. Kuru

Johanna Siméant Casualties of Care: Immigration and the Politics of Humanitarianism in France by Miriam Ticktin

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