T21

Autocracy vs. Democracy ? A New Geopolitical Landscape in France, Europe and The United States   A new issue of The Tocqueville Review is now available online (Vol. 45, No. 1) A social […]

Par Catherine Audard et Cécile Laborde. Le processus de sécularisation de la société française qui a commencé pendant la Révolution française et qui se poursuit de nos jours semble avant […]

You can call American politics a lot of things, but boring is not one of them. In less than two months, we have seen the former president and Republican nominee […]

Yaël Braun-Pivet has been reelected president of the National Assembly, narrowly edging out the NFP candidate André Chassaigne with the help of votes from the newly rebaptized Droite Républicaine, ex-LR. […]

The New Popular Front briefly reinvigorated the left with enthusiasm for the idea of stopping the radical right in its tracks and, with luck, achieving major social advances, including a […]

The Socialists, Greens, and Communists have agreed to propose Laurence Tubiana as the NFP’s candidate for prime minister, but LFI has rejected the proposal as “not serious.” On the contrary, […]

As a historian, I like to think that the course of human events falls into regular, knowable patterns that a careful observer can uncover and explain. But there are days […]

The New Popular Front seems well on the way to following the old Nupes into oblivion. The four parties have been unable to agree on the name of a future […]

Blocages is too mild a word for the paralysis that has gripped the French political class since last Sunday’s election. It’s not just the tripartite division of the National Assembly that […]

Yesterday was a day full of revelations. First, we learned that Jordan Bardella, deprived of the chance to become France’s next prime minister, will instead become the president of Patriots […]

What is one to make of all the posturing among the deputies newly elected to la Chambre introuvable? The Mélenchonistes look like amateur poker players going all in on a pair of […]

My reaction to the stunning election results is now up at The New Republic. Thanks for reading.

(Originally posted on the Tocqueville 21 Substack) Not a victory for any one party, but an overwhelming defeat for the far right. Dear readers, All cards are now on the […]

No, I haven’t been stunned into silence by yesterday’s amazing and worrisome result. I’ve written an article for The New Republic: here’s the link. In the meantime, I want to […]

This electoral sequence certainly has not provided the “clarification” President Macron hoped for when he dissolved the National Assembly, but it has cleared up a few things on the left. […]

The outcome of Sunday’s second round remains unpredictable. The désistements have made it even more improbable that the RN will win an absolute majority … unless, of course, voters decide not to […]

This morning on France Inter, Marine Le Pen stated in no uncertain terms that Jordan Bardella would become prime minister only if the RN wins an absolute majority: “Why take […]

It’s the morning after the election, but the dust has only partially settled. Even with the rapid désistements of candidates willing to abide by traditional “republican discipline,” the ultimate outcome is not […]

Emmanuel Macron, who may have imagined himself in de Gaulle’s shoes when he dissolved the National Assembly, might consider now coming before the French and announcing, “Je ne vous ai […]

For months the U.S. presidential contest seemed almost frozen in place, the two candidates already chosen, and most of the key events taking place in courthouses, not on the campaign […]

Still reeling from Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in last night’s US presidential debate, I awoke this morning to an email from a Belgian friend with a link to the latest […]

In its successful effort to de-demonize itself, the RN has certainly benefited from the comparison with Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia in Italy. Like the RN, the FdI is a party […]

It’s hard to escape the impression that the New Popular Front coalesced around a name more than anything else. This was François Ruffin’s stroke of genius: to substitute a phantasmagorical […]

Upon dissolving the parliament the president said that it would lead to “clarification” of the political landscape: “The masks will fall,” he added. But clarity remains elusive. Indeed, the dissembling, […]

Is the center making a comeback? Harris is projecting the RN to win 220-250 seats, the New Popular Front 135-165, and Renaissance 125-130, half of its current 250 but still […]

A word much in the air these days is sursaut. It was a favorite of General de Gaulle’s, but it’s hard to translate into English. One dictionary suggests “surge,” which rarely […]

President Macron’s professed purpose in dissolving the National Assembly was to achieve a “clarification” of the political picture in France. People had supposedly become confused about what they were supporting. […]

Readers of a certain age may remember when the Communist Party of the Soviet Union described its inscrutable inner workings as “democratic centralism.” Within hours of its joyous birth, France’s […]

The Socialists, Communists, Greens, France Insoumise (LFI), and Place Publique have reached an agreement on a new Popular Front and will present a single slate of candidates in the first […]

I have a new article up at The New Republic. (There’s a problem with this link, which should be fixed shortly, however.) Here are a few additional thoughts. In the […]

The result was no surprise. The response was. But it shouldn’t have been. The polls had predicted a landslide victory for Jordan Bardella and the Rassemblement National for months, and […]

If any proof were still needed of the utter weirdness of American politics in 2024, it is this: A political candidate bribes a porn star to keep quiet about their […]

Robert A. Schneider, The Return of Resentment. The Rise and Decline and Rise Again of a Political Emotion.  Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2023. xiii and 297 pp.   […]

For the past couple of weeks, the presidential election has been stuck in a strange sort of split screen, as both candidates find themselves unwilling participants in dramas whose outcome […]

Book Review: Stephen Gross, Energy And Power: Germany in the Age of Oil, Atoms, and Climate Change, Oxford University Press, 2023 Image Credit: Oxford University Press   Achieving a new […]

Susan Neiman, Left is Not Woke (Polity Press, 2023) Image Credit: Polity Press   In Left is Not Woke, Susan Neiman wades into the ongoing debate over the concept of […]

Tony Barber of the Financial Times has kindly cited one of my posts here. Barber includes a recent poll of présidentiables ranked by favorability, which alarmingly places Le Pen and Bardella […]

As I have written here before, much of the presidential election of 2024 will not take place on the campaign trail, but in courtrooms. This will be particularly true over […]

** This is James Stafford’s response to our forum on his book The Case of Ireland: Commerce, Empire and the European Order, 1750-1848.**   By James Stafford I’d like to start, […]

** This is the second in a series of three reviews of James Stafford’s The Case of Ireland: Commerce, Empire and the European Order, 1750-1848. Each day this week one review […]

** This is the second in a series of three reviews of James Stafford’s The Case of Ireland: Commerce, Empire and the European Order, 1750-1848. Each day this week one review […]

** This is the first in a series of three reviews of James Stafford’s The Case of Ireland: Commerce, Empire and the European Order, 1750-1848. Each day this week one review […]

Yes, I know, the next presidential election is still eons away, but le bal des prétendants was already well under way when the orchestra struck several false notes. First, it was revealed […]

Par Catherine Larrère et Lucile Schmid. Ce dossier, consacré à la question écologique, réunit des études sur les mobilisations de la société civile. S’agissant de The Tocqueville Review/La Revue Tocqueville, […]

Western governments grappling with extreme right-wing drifts, particularly the Biden government in the United States and Macron’s in France, welcomed Lula’s electoral victory in Brazil. Over the course of the […]

Over the past two weeks, the chances of Donald Trump returning to power have grown considerably. Here are three reasons why. First, Trump has established beyond any doubt his complete […]

Review: Brooke Barbier, King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father (Harvard University Press, 2023)   American Founder John Hancock sacrificed “his health and wealth” in service of […]

Last week President Macron surprised everyone by suggesting that some European countries might send troops to Ukraine if necessary to prevent a Russian victory. Perhaps that’s putting what he said […]

It’s hardly news that both the Macronistes and Les Républicains have been chasing after hard-right votes by taking an ever tougher line on immigration. The sheep are dressing up in […]

Emmanuel Macron is putting the resistance fighter Missak Manouchian in the Pantheon but has disinvited the Rassemblement National from the ceremony. The RN intends to make its presence felt anyway […]

5. Politics In a broad survey piece like this, I can’t cover party politics across Europe in any detail. Even summarizing political developments in the countries I follow closely is […]

This is the fourth part of a series of posts on the state of the European Union. 4. The Environment Environmental concerns have transformed politics in Europe more profoundly than […]

3. Economy For most of its history, economic issues have dominated the politics of the European Union at both the national level and the European level. Unfortunately, those two debates–national […]

This is the second installment of a series of posts on the European Union, the first of which appeared here yesterday and dealt with security. Today’s topic is: Immigration European […]

Having been charged by The Tocqueville Review with the task of contributing a reflection on the state of the European Union as a prelude to the European parliamentary elections, I […]

[NOTE TO READERS: This Election Chronicle is also being published in French and Spanish translations at Le Grand Continent]. As I predicted in an earlier post, the presidential campaign these […]

This is a book review of Christine Abely’s The Russia Sanctions: The Economic Response to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2024)   When Russia invaded Ukraine […]

Review: Erwin Chemerinsky, Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism (Yale University Press)   In 2010, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case involving the constitutionality of […]

In his inaugural speech to the National Assembly today, French prime minister Gabriel Attal used the word “rearmament” 14 times, “poverty” only once. He indicated that his government would be […]

Translated by Cross Lawrence An Accursed Era In 1999, J.M. Coetzee wrote: “Robert Musil would call the times in which he lived an ‘accursed era’ ; his best energies were […]

Donald Trump’s greatest gift, if you can call it that, is an unparalleled ability to focus attention on himself. That attention may be appalled. It may be admiring. But it […]

In 2023, the Center for Critical Democracy Studies began a partnership with the philosophy and social theory journal Analyse & Kritik. Here, Editor Anton Leist presents the second issue of […]

France has a new prime minister but not yet a new government. Perhaps the delay is intended to wring the full benefit of Gabriel Attal’s popularity from his nomination before […]

Laurent Fabius, who presides over the Constitutional Council, presented that body’s ritual New Year’s wishes to President Macron today. Macron, who availed himself of the same day to jettison his […]

Professor George Ross is ad personam Jean Monet Chair at the University of Montreal, Moris Hillquit Professor Emeritus of Labor and Social Thought at Brandeis University, and a past chair […]

Review: Adam Hochschild, American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis (Mariner Books)    “The world must be made safe for democracy.” That was American president […]

  Presidential elections are occasions of great drama and uncertainty. In some races, candidates can emerge from relative obscurity to blaze a path to the White House, like Jimmy Carter […]

Comprendre la ‘laïcité à la française’ : malentendus, mythes et réalités. Le nouveau numéro de La revue Tocqueville, publié en automne 2023, est désormais disponible en ligne. (Vol. 44, No. 2) […]

  L’ère Maudite. En 1999, J.M Coetzee écrit : « Robert Musil qualifiait l’époque à laquelle il vivait d’ ‘ère maudite’ ; ses meilleures énergies étaient consacrées à essayer de […]

In 2023, the Center for Critical Democracy Studies began a partnership with the philosophy and social theory journal Analyse & Kritik. Director Stephen Sawyer recently exchanged with one of the […]

In next year’s European elections the French Left will be represented by no fewer than five political parties: La France Insoumise, the Socialists, the Communists, the Greens, and the Parti […]

Tocqueville 21 was born of the belief that history, and historical insight, can and must contribute to our understanding of the contemporary political and moral landscape. As the American political […]

Review: Daniel Chandler, Free and Equal:What Would a Fair Society Look Like? In 1971, John Rawls published A Theory of Justice, a book frequently described as the 20th century’s greatest […]

Vincent Duclert, historien, chercheur titulaire et ancien directeur du Centre Raymond Aron (CESPRA, EHESS-CNRS)   Raymond Aron est décédé le 17 octobre 1983 à 16h30, dans la voiture de l’Express […]

Mythes et miracles. Le 16 octobre, quelques jours avant le premier tour des élections présidentielles argentines, l’ancien président de l’Uruguay – une icône de la gauche sud-américaine – a résumé […]

** This is the fourth post in our Black Dignity and Death forum, focusing on Vincent Lloyd’s Black Dignity: The Struggle against Domination and Norman Ajari’s Dignity Or Death: Ethics […]

** This is the third in our Black Dignity and Death forum, focusing on Vincent Lloyd’s Black Dignity: The Struggle against Domination and Norman Ajari’s Dignity Or Death: Ethics and […]

** This is the second post in our Black Dignity and Death forum, focusing on Vincent Lloyd’s Black Dignity: The Struggle against Domination and Norman Ajari’s Dignity Or Death: Ethics […]

** This is the first post in our Black Dignity and Death forum, focusing on Vincent Lloyd’s Black Dignity: The Struggle against Domination and Norman Ajari’s Dignity Or Death: Ethics […]

This week, Tocqueville 21 is hosting a forum on the topic of Black Dignity and Death, inspired by the recent publications of Vincent Lloyd’s Black Dignity: The Struggle Against Domination and […]

Review: Louisa Lim, Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong, (Riverhead Books, 2022)   When the United Kingdom turned control of Hong Kong over to the Peoples’ Republic of China […]

The French school year began with a surprise announcement: schoolgirls could no longer wear a popular style of dress originating in the Islamic world, the abaya. Not longer after, the […]

For a change of pace, this post will consist of a book review. Cole Stangler, a French-American journalist who covers French labor and politics for a variety of publications, has […]

It’s almost indecent to talk about the disintegration of the French Left while the disintegration of the Middle East is ongoing. While it would be an exaggeration to say that […]

On October 11th, 5pm, the Center for Critical Democracy Studies of the American University of Paris (AUP) will host Professors Isabelle Aubert (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and Rainer Forst (Goethe-Universität) for “Solidarity in […]

Review: Sarah Bakewell, Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope (Chatto & Windus, 2023)   The British writer Sarah Bakewell is a proven master at presenting […]

On Wednesday October 4th, the Center for Critical Democracy Studies will be hosting a presentation by Professor Andrew Jainchill (Queen’s University Ontario) titled Popular and Municipal Magistrates at the Head […]

  In the incubatory dark of social media, nonsense is propagating. In March 2022, shortly after Vladimir Putin’s renewed assault on Ukraine, noted IR theorist John Mearsheimer benefited from a […]

On Thursday September 21st, the Center for Critical Democracy Studies will be hosting a presentation by Professor Alan Kahan (Université de Versailles) titled The Three Pillars and Four Fears of […]

Continuing the theme of my previous post, “Staying in the Game,” I want to comment today on another of President Macron’s strategies for keeping the political debate centered on himself, […]

Appel à contribution | Call for Papers. (English below) Autour de Raymond Boudon : Savoirs fondés et bonnes raisons. Raymond Boudon (1934-2013) est l’un des sociologues les plus importants de […]

La rentrée politique has arrived. I hope you’ve all had an excellent summer. I thought I’d break my long silence by taking note of Emmanuel Macron’s effort to remain relevant […]

Review: Michael Walzer, The Struggle for a Decent Politics: On “Liberal” as an Adjective (Yale University Press)   Michael Walzer is among America’s most distinguished political philosophers.  Throughout his long career, […]

President Biden is hoping to cajole Ursula von der Leyen into her succeeding Jens Stoltenberg as the next Nato Secretary General in the wake of Ben Wallace’s candidacy being occluded […]

From the Social and Political Psychology Lab Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece — The recent Greek election results exhibited an almost unprecedented – and quite unforeseen […]

Tocqueville in Review – July 4th. Subscribe to the Tocqueville 21 Newsletter on Substack to receive Tocqueville in Review directly in your inbox!   Dear Readers,  This week was an […]

Bavure policière, the conventional journalistic euphemism for the unauthorized police violence that has so often triggered the kind of uncontrollable popular violence that France has witnessed for the past four […]

In early June, The Tocqueville Society hosted its annual conference, which took place this year at the American University of Paris. Organized around the theme “Autocratie vs. Démocratie”, the conference […]

Tocqueville 21 · China and Hong Kong, Society and Politics with Jeffrey Wasserstrom Welcome back to the Tocqueville 21 Podcast! Today we return to the vast topic of China, and […]

Emmanuel Macron has decided to honor the Resistance leader Missak Manouchian by placing his remains in the Panthéon. An Armenian immigrant, Manouchian led the FTP-MOI (Franc-Tireurs et Partisans de la […]