T21

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 […]

  By Hasret Dikici Bilgin   The Turkish voters went to the polls twice in the last month, first for the parliamentary elections and the first round of the presidential […]

Michel Rocard was the father of the so-called Second Left and erstwhile hope of French social democracy. His once-bright star has all but faded today. The journalist Jean-Michel Djian recently […]

I’ve just returned from a couple of weeks in France. I am not carrying in my bags the outline of a latter-day “Retour de l’URSS.” I can’t claim that my […]

Review: Philippe Sands, The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy (Weidenfeld & Nichols, 2022)   Testing Britain’s Commitment to Decolonization and the Rule of Law […]

La défense de l’environnement : les mobilisations de la société civile. Le nouveau numéro de La revue Tocqueville, publié au printemps 2023, est désormais disponible en ligne. (Vol. 44, No. 1). […]

Dear Readers, This coming week is an important one for Tocqueville 21 and our sponsors at the Center for Critical Democracy Studies and The Tocqueville Review. On June 2-3, The […]

President Macron, France’s erstwhile Jupiter, has been on the road this past week flogging his wares like an old-time VRP (for those too young to remember: VRP = voyageur représentant […]

Translated by Cross Lawrence The Anticipations Donald Trump seems to be surfing on his troubles with the American courts and Jair Bolsonaro has just returned to Brazil after three months […]

Michael Goldfarb, born 1950, in New York City is an American journalist and former London correspondent for NPR (National Public Radio). He’s the singular host of the podcast FRDH (First […]

The fractious meeting this week of the parties comprising the Nupes has unleashed a spate of editorials (e.g., this and this) wondering if the loose, (electorally) pragmatic coalition of left-and-lefter […]

Historians will not judge Biden kindly.  For the decision to exit Afghanistan and ensuing debacle he will rue the day. But the decision to run for office for a second […]

Tocqueville 21 · Justice, Freedom, and the Nature of Democracy with Alexis Carré Welcome back to the Tocqueville 21 Podcast! Today, I’m happy to present you with the second half […]

Contrary to my (low-confidence) expectations, the Conseil Constitutionnel approved the reform bill with only minor changes (removing sweeteners that had been added to mollify the opposition in full knowledge that […]

Yesterday President Macron celebrated his re-election victory in achieving pension reform. I almost said “re-election” because the speech laid out a program for the years ahead as if his presidency […]

Review: Martin Wolf, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism (Penguin Press, 2023)   Martin Wolf, the veteran chief economics commentator of the Financial Times, lauded by global business folk and a […]

Tocqueville 21 Call for Applications – Editorial Board Tocqueville 21, a bilingual online journal covering history, democracy, and transatlantic affairs in the 21st century, is recruiting! We aim to add […]

  Les anticipations   Donald Trump semble surfer sur ses déboires avec la justice américaine et Jair Bolsonaro vient de rentrer au Brésil depuis trois mois passés en Floride. Les […]

Germans have never warmed to Emmanuel Macron, even in the early days when he was busily trying to patch up the Franco-German “couple.” But the couple now appears to be […]

Ivan Krastev has an interesting article in today’s FT (paywalled) in which he reflects on what he takes to be an overdramatization of the stakes of elections and/or reforms in […]

Escaping his troubles at home, Emmanuel Macron is visiting China. The visit has two distinct and some would say quite contradictory goals: on the one hand, France wants to do […]

The future of the pension reform bill remains in suspense for another week, until the Conseil Constitutionnel renders its decision on the provisions of the law itself as well as […]

I reflect on the current protests in historical context with historians Rafe Goldfarb and Antonio de Francesco on Emmanuel Laurentin’s radio broadcast/podcast Le Temps du Débat (April 3).

A TV station in Toronto invited me to opine on the resistance to French pension reform. I’m sure I managed to say enough to displease people on all sides.

Occasionally I write about matters other than French politics, so I’m taking the liberty of posting this recent review here. It discusses Chris Miller’s excellent book Chip War, and though […]

By Catherine Audard and Michel Forsé. Our article written for the half-century anniversary of Rawls’ A Theory of Justice is now available for free on Project MUSE. Throughout 2021, numerous […]

As he has done in previous regime crises, Emmanuel Macron is again promising a “new method” of governing. Unfortunately, nobody is listening, and a new “listening tour” is not likely […]

When the ‘AUKUS’ deal was announced in September 2021, it was met with a mixture of outrage and scepticism in Paris. Although Australia’s decision to renege on its €31 billion […]

It came down to the wire, and in the end the president simply did not have the votes. Nor did he have enough arm-twisting clout to persuade the fence-sitters whose […]

Let’s talk about cities.   This week was a pivotal one for the narrative of the American city with the unexpected fall of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. The story, which […]

Review: Glory M. Liu, Adam Smith’s America (Princeton University Press, 2022)   Adam Smith was born in 1723 in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, a small market town near Edinburgh. A life-long bachelor, Smith […]

Dear Reader,  With an eye on the recent one year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Tocqueville 21 begins its coverage with a special press review penned by Arthur Goldhammer. […]

**This is the author’s response in our book forum on Megan Brown’s The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community. This week, we have published four reviews of […]

** This is the fourth in a series of four reviews of Megan Brown’s The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community. Previous reviews include: 1. When Algeria Was […]

** This is the third in a series of four reviews of Megan Brown’s The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community. Previous reviews include: 1. When Algeria Was […]

**This is the second in a series of four reviews of Megan Brown’s The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community. Previous reviews include: 1. When Algeria Was Europe? […]

Emmanuel Macron came to power as an ambitious young visionary who (rightly) divined a concentration of force in the center of the political spectrum–a force that supposedly relegated to the […]

** This is the first in a series of four reviews of Megan Brown’s The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community. Each day this week one review […]

Review: Rebecca Solnit, Orwell’s Roses (Penguin Random House)   “In the spring of 1936, a writer planted roses.” Thus begins Rebecca Solnit’s Orwell’s Roses. Six other chapters in this quirky work […]

Around midday on June 7, 1962, residents of Algeria’s capital city watched smoke rise above the buildings in Alger-Centre, near the port. Nearly three months after the signing of a […]

Après avoir fait face à des menaces de toutes sortes culminant avec l’invasion des palais de la « Place des trois pouvoirs » conçu par Oscar Niemeyer, le gouvernement Lula […]

Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National has stormed the French National Assembly with a politeness offensive, adopting unaccustomed decorum as a strategic weapon. Meanwhile, La France Insoumise, true to its moniker, […]

Tocqueville 21 · The Ukraine War, Europe, and Civic Duty with Alexis Carré Welcome back to the Tocqueville 21 Podcast for our first episode of 2023! This week, I sat […]