ABOUT

  • Tocqueville 21
  • Stephen Sawyer
  • Art Goldhammer
  • The Blog Editors
  • Contributors
  • A Word from the Director

BOOK FORUMS

  • Western Europe Democratic’s Age – Martin Conway (May 2022)
  • The Economic Weapon – Nicholas Mulder (Mar 2022)
  • Soldiers of God in a Secular World – Sarah Shortall (Jan 2022)
  • Humane – Samuel Moyn (Oct 2021)
  • Parliament – Gregory Conti (Jul-Aug 2021)

FOCUS

  • Democracy and Truth
  • Elites and democracy
  • Européennes 2019
  • Human Rights and Global Inequality
  • Liberalism and Identity Politics
  • Mai 68
  • Prisons and Police
  • Sex and Secularism

SPONSORS

  • American University in Paris
  • The Center for Critical Democracy Studies
  • The Tocqueville Review / La Revue Tocqueville

Subscribe to our newsletter

Vous affirmez avoir pris connaissance de notre Politique de confidentialité.

Vérifiez votre boite de réception ou votre répertoire d’indésirables pour confirmer votre abonnement.

  • Thématiques
  • Newsletter
Logo
  • AUP
  • La Revue
    • The Tocqueville Review / La Revue Tocqueville
    • Team / Équipe Editorial
  • CCDS (AUP)
  • Art Goldhammer’s Blog
aup

Tocqueville 21 Blog

  • Stephen Sawyer (Founder and Director)
  • Art Goldhammer: French Politics
  • Books / Livres
  • Essays / Tribunes
  • Revue de presse
  • The Tocqueville 21 Podcast
  • The Tocqueville Review / La Revue Tocqueville
  • Tocquevilliana
  • ABC Interviews
  • Events
  • Blog info
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

By the Seat of His Pants

21 May 2022 | Arthur Goldhammer

Emmanuel Macron is firmly at the controls of the aircraft, but its destination remains unclear. After three weeks of flying in circles, the pilot-in-chief settled on a new government but […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Macron Mimics Houellebecq, Pécresse Performs Merkel

14 February 2022 | Arthur Goldhammer

Emmanuel Macron has been accused of being the “president of the rich,” but he has his ways of reaching out to “la France qui se lève tôt.” One of them, […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Le Régalien et Le Sacre

23 December 2021 | Arthur Goldhammer

Valérie Pécresse reportedly intends to devote the beginning of her campaign to “le régalien“: “Il ne faut pas lâcher cette thématique, au moins jusqu’à fin janvier, insiste le député Eric Pauget. Son […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Who Is Voting for Pécresse?

20 December 2021 | Arthur Goldhammer

A new poll sheds light on the Pécresse electorate. It is essentially the Fillon electorate–older, more likely to be retired, more Catholic, and wealthier than the average voter–augmented by a […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Macron Takes The Bully Pulpit

16 December 2021 | Arthur Goldhammer

Emmanuel Macron’s second presidential campaign will be nothing like his first. In 2016-17 he enjoyed the advantage of enigma: no one knew who he was or what he represented (though […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Le Traître et le Néant

18 October 2021 | Arthur Goldhammer

The title, with its nod to Sartre’s L’Être et le Néant, is probably all that one needs to read, but Davet and Lhomme, the duo who put the final nails […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Les Splendeurs et Misères du Commentateur Politique

26 April 2021 | Arthur Goldhammer

These are difficult days for the political commentator. The normal political thrust and jab has been overshadowed by the universal preoccupation with the pandemic. Commentary on Covid is best left […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Why Are the Political Skies Darkening?

9 February 2021 | Arthur Goldhammer

With the 2022 presidential election looming in the middle distance, it seems that everyone in France with the slightest modicum of presidential ambition is launching a trial balloon lately. The […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

First Le Maréchal, then Mlle Maréchal

28 December 2020 | Arthur Goldhammer

Is Macron’s flirtation with the far right intensifying? A week ago he gave an interview to L’Express in which, mine de rien, he dropped the names of Charles Maurras and Maréchal […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Valéry Giscard-d’Estaing

3 December 2020 | Arthur Goldhammer

Giscard-d’Estaing, who died yesterday, marked a transition in the history of the Fifth Republic. Or, rather, he should have marked a transition, but the “modernization” he championed proved abortive, and […]

More
Revue de presse

Revue de Presse: 11 octobre

11 October 2020 | Tocqueville 21

Si Alexis de Tocqueville rendait à nouveau visite aux Etats-Unis aujourd’hui, il serait inquiet pour le sort de leur démocratie, avancent Aurelian Craiutu, contributeur à La revue Tocqueville, et Sheldon […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Mediapoliticking Comes to France

3 June 2020 | Arthur Goldhammer

A movie star and a reality-TV buffoon have won the presidency of the United States in recent years. Is it conceivable that the mantle of Charles de Gaulle will devolve […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Virage à 1 km–mais à droite ou à gauche?

26 May 2020 | Arthur Goldhammer

The pandemic has presented Emmanuel Macron with an opportunity. He can now reimagine his presidency without appearing to have been forced into retreat by the Gilets Jaunes and opponents of […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Macron at Midterm

11 May 2020 | Arthur Goldhammer

These are difficult days for political commentators. Politics-as-usual has given way to quarrels over the Covid-19 response. Commentators can choose one of two courses: concentrate on the errors, inevitably plentiful […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Mes voeux … et ceux du président

31 December 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

Happy New Year to faithful readers of this blog. President Macron delivered his New Year’s address to the French a couple of hours ago, and it seems that he has […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

La lutte continue …

28 December 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

This strike is now longer than that of ’95, with no end yet in sight. Although Parisian tempers are fraying, public support for the strike remains high, yet the government […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

“Il faut savoir terminer une grève”

17 December 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

Another day of significant mobilization with no end in sight, as people wonder if their Christmas travel plans will have to be changed and merchants are smarting over the hit […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Et tu, Berger?

11 December 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

Emmanuel Macron appears to have lost Laurent Berger. This is the French political equivalent of a bad Groundhog Day: we are in for at least six more weeks of winter […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Impasse?

6 December 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

Both sides have reason to be satisfied with the mobilization of Dec. 5. The unions are pleased that the strike received broad support. The number of demonstrators was large, though […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Gaulois réfractaires?

2 December 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

This poll was called to my attention by a reader, Frédéric Lefebvre-Naré. It purports to show that while 75% of the French believe that pension reform is necessary, 64% do […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Lucidity and Brain-Death

8 November 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

Yesterday I had harsh words for Emmanuel Macron. Today I must pay respect: à tout seigneur, tout honneur. About yesterday’s post a friend commented, “Yes, but there is no alternative.” And […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Jupiter Redux

7 November 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

It will be difficult, I anticipate, to strike the right tone with this post. I do not want to suggest that the continued influx of immigrants from very poor countries […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics / Blog info

Jacques Chirac

29 September 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

Jacques Chirac’s political career spans the time I have been closely watching French politics. He was first elected to the Assemblée Nationale in 1967, after serving as President Georges Pompidou’s […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

La rentrée (la mienne aussi)

28 August 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

My apologies for the long hiatus in this blog. I’ve been translating Thomas Piketty’s new book, Capitalism and Ideology, which will be out in France on Sept. 12 and in […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Mayday

2 May 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

May 1, the tradition fête des travailleurs et travailleuses, turned out not be quite as apocalyptic as the authorities had warned, perhaps exaggerating a bit in order to frighten away potential […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Macron, Act II

26 April 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

After Gilets Jaunes Act XXIII, yesterday the curtain rose on Macron Act II. There were innovations in both form and substance. Let me begin with the form, where the change […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Moment of Maximum Danger for Macron

19 March 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

The gauntlet has been thrown down. An angry Édouard Philippe appeared on TV tonight to attempt to explain why the violence in Paris had gotten so out of hand on […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

The “Social and Ecological” Contract

5 March 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

As France’s political parties wither away, French civil society may be organizing itself to fill the void. Perhaps that is too optimistic a read of what those perennial civil-society reformers, […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Macron, Marathoner

26 February 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

Emmanuel Macron has stolen the thunder of the Gilets Jaunes by embarking on a Magical Mystery Tour. Calling the traveling Macron show a Grand Débat National is an ingenious camouflage. […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Il faut savoir terminer un fiasco

18 February 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

Fini la comédie! Il faut savoir terminer un fiasco. For more than three months now, all the thinking and (especially) talking heads of France and Navarre have been trying hard […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Redistribution Under Macron–Updated Figures from the IPP

24 January 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

The IPP has released a new report on the cumulative effect of Macron’s budgets since taking office (h/t Ashoka Mody). Here is the executive summary: Cette note étudie les réformes […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Comme une lettre à la poste

14 January 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

I try not to be cynical–well, not too cynical–about politics. Too many people already are. But when the president formerly known as Jupiter takes up pen and paper and asks […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

The Wrong Way to Reform

2 January 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

In his New Year’s vœux to the nation, Emmanuel Macron listed the reforms that would be at the top of his agenda for 2019. In particular: “Le gouvernement dans les prochains mois […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Mes vœux et les siens

1 January 2019 | Arthur Goldhammer

If I thought my opinion carried any weight in the world, I would be more circumspect in expressing it. I would worry that my exasperation with Emmanuel Macron would push […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

A Tale of Two Languages

27 December 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

My latest on the state of France in The New Republic.   Photo Credit: Copyleft and Foto-AG Gymnasium Melle, Macron & Le Pen, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.  

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

A Response from Hugo Drochon

20 December 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

My post yesterday outlining my disappointment with Emmanuel Macron was prompted by a question from Hugo Drochon, the author of Nietzsche’s Great Politics, with whom I have discussed French politics […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Disappointment

19 December 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

A good friend wrote today saying that he sensed I had become disappointed with Macron and wondered why. Here is my answer: Yes, you’re right that I’m disappointed in Macron. […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

La Pagaille

18 December 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

The fundamental problem of the French presidency has been unexpectedly highlighted by Emmanuel Macron’s response to the Gilets Jaunes. Florence Aubenas, writing in Le Monde, noted that in her visits […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Article in Foreign Affairs

12 December 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

I have an article on the Gilets Jaunes and Macron’s response on the Foreign Affairs Web site. Free, but registration required.   Photo Credit: Presidencia de la República Mexicana, Emmanuel […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Bilan provisoire

11 December 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

Last night Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation. Did he save his skin? My first reaction was negative, based more on a visceral response to his presentation–poor–than on the substance of […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

“Ce peuple est encore dangereux”

2 December 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

  Half a century ago, Raymond Aron wrote of the French that “ce peuple, apparemment tranquille, est encore dangereux.” His observation has once again been borne out. Yesterday’s violent demonstrations, […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

La colère jaune

24 November 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

  When I was learning to ride a bicycle at around age 5, I was stung by a yellow jacket, lost my balance, and fell to the ground. I have […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Recalibration

17 October 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

France finally has its remaniement. Tonight President Macron came not to explain what he had done but to insist that it was meaningless and of no importance: the direction had not […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

The Contradictions of Macronism

12 October 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

President of the rich? The label has now stuck fast to the once-Teflon Macron, but does it reflect reality? Le Monde today published figures from the Institut de Politiques Publiques showing the […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Once More into the Breach

3 October 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

I got it wrong yesterday. I assumed that Macron’s refusal of Collomb’s resignation was meant to humiliate Collomb. It was, but I failed to reckon with Collomb’s orneriness. He resubmitted […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Je suis votre chef!

2 October 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

Emmanuel Macron claims that he has heard the complaints about his arrogance and is prepared to change his style in order to govern more effectively. No change is discernible, however, […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

La rentrée politique

5 September 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

Emmanuel Macron’s second rentrée resembles the first. The president is trying to get the ship of state back on an even keel after a rough summer in heavy seas. The Benalla Affair […]

More
Blog editors/Rédacteurs du Blog / Jacob Hamburger: Blog Editor

#Lui

15 August 2018 | Jacob Hamburger

  There have been rumors that François Hollande is contemplating a return to politics reported in French media over the last several weeks. Perhaps the stalling of the rise of […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

The Affair

1 August 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

In politics you never know what’s going to trip you up. Slow growth and sticky unemployment stats would have spoiled Macron’s summer in any case, but who could have predicted […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Another One-Term President?

5 July 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

Since Jacques Chirac reduced the term of the French presidency from 7 years to 5, no one has won a second term. The approval ratings of both Sarkozy and Hollande […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Pyrrhic Victory

20 June 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

Emmanuel Macron has won a Pyrrhic victory. From the beginning of his presidency he has made winning Germany’s assent to a “Eurozone budget” a strategic goal. Conventional wisdom, which despite […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

The Intelligence of the President

16 June 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

President Macron is a well-respected man. Even his detractors credit him with being a remarkably thoughtful and intelligent man. Why, then, has he allowed himself to be portrayed as thoughtless […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

“Two White Males”

23 May 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

I try to stay positive about Emmanuel Macron, recognizing that a failure of his presidency–and let’s be clear: the last two French presidencies have ended in abject failure–could well prove […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Macron in America

24 April 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

The US media take an interest in France mainly when there is an election or a state visit. With Macron in the US right now, my views have been solicited […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Form vs. Function

16 April 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

For the second time in three days, President Macron, le pourfendeur de la présidence bavarde of his predecessor, sat down for a lengthy interview. Regarding the content of his discussion with journalists […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Also sprach Macron

13 April 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

The president, champion of la parole rare, emerged from his palace yesterday, just as le président bavard, as his successor has labeled him, published a book accusing the former of betrayal of […]

More
Elites and democracy / Le Club / Focus

Comment l’élite militaire se pense dans le nouveau jeu de temporalités

16 February 2018 | Olivia Leboyer

  Olivia Leboyer est docteur en science politique et enseigne à Sciences Po Paris. Sa thèse a été publiée en 2012, Elite et Libéralisme, CNRS éditions. Ses recherches actuelles portent sur […]

More
Elites and democracy / Interviews/Entretiens / Le Club / Focus

Patrick Weil: “The Problem Lies at the Summit of Power”

7 February 2018 | Patrick Weil

Patrick Weil is a historian of immigration and citizenship law, a senior research fellow at the CNRS and the University of Paris 1, and a visiting professor at Yale Law […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics / Blog info

De Davos, l’Auvergne

29 January 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

Emmanuel Macron has been on the move. At the Davos conclave of the world’s movers and shakers, he made a splash by announcing not only that France was back but […]

More
Interviews/Entretiens / Le Club

Jean-Claude Monod: “Il y a une figure qu’on peut exhumer, le chef émancipateur”

22 January 2018 | Jean-Claude Monod

  Directeur de recherches au CNRS et professeur de philosophie à l’Ecole normale supérieure, Jean-Claude Monod est l’auteur de Qu’est-ce qu’un chef en démocratie?, une réflexion sur le charisme et l’autorité dans la […]

More
Interviews/Entretiens

Jean-Claude Monod: “After the totalitarian experience, we can recover the emancipatory leader”

| Jean-Claude Monod

  Jean-Claude Monod is a research director at the CNRS and professor of philosophy at the Ecole normale supérieure. In Qu’est-ce qu’un chef en démocratie? [What is a leader in a democracy?], he […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Emmanuel Macron, Pragmatist?

19 January 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

Thomas Legrand, one of my favorite commentators on French politics, to whose France Inter editorial I wake up every morning, ruminated today on the “meaning of Macronism” and concluded, in […]

More
Art Goldhammer: French Politics

Je fais ce que je dis …

4 January 2018 | Arthur Goldhammer

… and apparently the public approves. Macron’s approval rating, which had dipped as low as 32% over the summer, prompting hasty judgments that his presidency had already foundered, is back […]

More

Sponsors

  • American University in Paris
  • The Center for Critical Democracy Studies
  • The Tocqueville Review / La Revue Tocqueville

About

  • Tocqueville 21
  • Stephen Sawyer
  • Art Goldhammer
  • The Blog Editors
  • Contributors
  • A Word from the Director

T21 Blog

  • Stephen Sawyer (Founder and Director)
  • Art Goldhammer: French Politics
  • Books / Livres
  • Essays / Tribunes
  • Revue de presse
  • The Tocqueville 21 Podcast
  • The Tocqueville Review / La Revue Tocqueville
  • Tocquevilliana
  • ABC Interviews
  • Events
  • Blog info

Contact

La Société Tocqueville
10 Place de Catalogne
75014 Paris – FRANCE
+ 33 (0) 1 44 18 54 31
contact@tocqueville21.com

©2023 Tocqueville 21
  • Mentions légales
  • Privacy / Vie Privée
aup