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UC Center Program
Spring 2005
PCC 116. French Society and Politics: Facts, Myths, Debates
Tuesday 1-4pm (lecture)
Wednesday 1-2pm (section) |
Instructor: Prof. Laure Blévis
Tutor:
Brigitte Jelen |
This course offers a critical introduction
to French society by focusing on French myths and contemporary
debates about national identity. The first part of the course
introduces the principal institutions and models of French
society (the theory and political system of French republicanism,
France's educational system, citizenship) and considers how
they are being transformed by challenges of the late twentieth
century (democratization, immigration, European integration,
and globalization). The myth of France as a homogeneous and
integrated society belies the systematic discrimination against
non-European immigrants and a large dispossessed population
living in suburban ghettos (“les banlieues”). France's parliamentary
system of governance has been challenged, as in the 2002 presidential
election, by the rise of fringe parties (of the extreme left,
but especially the right-wing National Front). Even traditional
political movements (trade unions and working class parties)
are challenged by the rise of new social movements that put
new gender and sexual identities at the heart of political
action, and indeed of French society. This course considers
these peculiar expressions of French identity and politics
through the complex events and debates that have animated
French society in recent decades. [History, Sociology,
Political Science, Anthropology, French Studies, European
Studies] 6.0 Credits including required section
COURSE MATERIALS
- J. Ardagh, France in the New Century. Portrait of a Changing Society, Penguin Books 2000.
- Articles and book chapters reproduced in the Course Reader (hereby referred to as [CR])
- Recommended readings for each week are either online, in the Reserve Cabinet [RC], or on the Course Reserve Shelf [RS]
- Online materials, including the weekly dossiers that will be discussed in lecture and section. Note that for any set of topics covered by the weekly dossiers, students are urged to search materials using the CDL (in particular, Lexis-Nexis) and Google Scholar.
- There are also separate Web
Resources Pages for this course with links to online
reference sites, as well as other research material. The
best English-language summary of French current events on
the web is The
Tocqueville Connection.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
The reading consists of the textbook and other secondary sources (the scholarly work of historians, social scientists, and others) in the Course Reader or online, as well as primary sources, “dossiers” of speeches, newspaper articles, and governmental reports. These readings must be done before the first session led by the instructor. The dossiers, in particular, form the center of the required weekly tutorial. Students are also required to participate on the excursions, including the one scheduled for Friday, March 18, 10am-12pm (Belleville).
Assignments and grades:
- Weekly Readings and Class Participation (20% of the final grade)
- Writing Assignments (40% of the final grade): two short papers (5-7 pages each) on two different topics.
- Examinations (40% of the final grade): mid-term (15%) and final (25%)
COURSE SCHEDULE
Part I. Describing French Society: Assimilation and Heterogeneity
Week 1. February 21-25
Republican Model of Integration and its Discontents
Readings :
- J.Jennings, “Citizenship, Republicanism and Multiculturalism in Contemporary France”, British Journal of Political Science, 30: 4, October 2000.
- S. Hazereesingh,“The Republican Tradition”, Political Traditions in Modern France, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. 65-97. [CR]
Recommended :
Dossier: Diversity
Try to make some sense of the diversity and unity of the French population (socially, geographically) by perusing the tables and maps of the 1999 French census and the official statistics (in French) from the Données sociales 2002.
Week 2. February 28-March 4
Citizenship and Nationality in France; the European Challenge
Readings :
- J.Ardagh, France in the New Century , pp.679-691.
- R.Brubaker, “Traditions of Nationhood in France and Germany” Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany , Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1992. [CR]
- P.Weil, “Nationalities and Citizenships: the lessons of the French experience for Germany and Europe”, in D.Cesarini & M.Fulbrook, Citizenship, Nationality and Migration in Europe, London: Routledge 1996, pp. 74-87 [CR]
- D. Howarth, “French Subnational Government and the European Union: The Relocation and Reformulation of Governance and the Restructuring of Policy” in S.Milner & N.Parsons (eds), Reinventing France: State and Society in the Twenty-first Century, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. [CR]
Recommended :
- P.Sahlins, Unnaturally French: Foreign Citizens in the Old Regime and After, Cornell University Press, 2004. [RS]
- M.Feldblum, The Politics of Nationality Reform and Immigration in Contemporary France, Albany: SUNY Press, 1999, (chap. 4 “Re-envisioning Citizenship: the Debates Over the Nationality Code”, pp. 57-76; and chap. 8 “Nationality Reform in the 1990s”, pp. 147-160) [RS]
- A-C.Decouflé, “Historic Elements of the Politics of Nationality in France”, in D.Horowits & G.Noiriel, Immigrants in Two Democracies. French and American Experiences, NY: New York University Press, 1992, pp. 357-367 [RC]
- D.Schnapper, “The Debate on Immigration and the Crisis of National Identity”, West European Politics, (April 1994), vol. 17, n.2, pp. 127-139.
- A.Guyomarch, H.Machin and E.Ritchie, France in the European Union, New York : St. Martin 's Press, 1998 [RS] (On Order).
Dossier: European Citizenship in the New Constitution
Read selections from the proposed European Constitution on citizenship:
Week 3. March 7-11
Education and Religions in France : Challenges for the Republican State
Readings :
- J.Ardagh, France in the New Century , pp.531-570 et pp. 580-590.
- C.Langlois, “Catholics and Seculars”, in P.Nora (ed), Realms of Memory. The Construction of the French Past, (V.1. “Conflicts and Divisions”), Columbia University Press, 1996, pp. 109-144. [CR]
- D.Boyzon-Fradet, “The French Education System: Springboard or Obstacle to Integration”, in D.Horowits & G.Noiriel, Immigrants in Two Democracies. French and American Experiences, NY: New York University Press, 1992, pp. 148-166 [CR]
- M.Duru-Bellat & A.Kieffer, “The Democratization of Education in France: Controversy over a Topical Issue”, Population: An English Selection, 13: 2, 2001, pp. 189-218.
Recommended :
- S. Hazareesingh, Political Traditions in Modern France, “Religion, Clericalism, and the Republican State”, chap. 4, pp. 98-123. [RS]
- M.Larkin, Church and State after the Dreyfus Affair; the Separation Issue in France, London : Macmillan, 1974 (esp. introduction and first chap. “Grass-roots Catholicism and the Secular Drought”, pp. 1-28). [RC]
- K.M.Anderson-Levitt, R.Sirota & M.Mazurier, “Elementary Education in France”, The Elementary School Journal, 92: 1, September 1991, pp. 79-95.
Dossier: Secularism and the Scarf
Part II: Immigration and Minorities in France
Week 4. March 14-18
A Long Tradition of Immigrations
Readings :
- G.Noiriel, “French and Foreigners” in P.Nora (ed), Realms of memory. The Construction of the French Past, (V.1. “Conflicts and Divisions”), Columbia University Press, 1996, pp. 145-180. [CR]
- A.Hargreaves, Introduction in Immigration, ‘Race’ and Ethnicity in Contemporary France, London: Routledge, 1995, pp. 1-27. [CR]
- P.Weil, “The Politics of Immigration” in A.Guyomarch, H.Machin, P.Hall and J.Haywards (eds), Developments in French Politics, Houndmills (GB), Palgrave, 2001, p. 211-226.
[CR]
- C. Beyala, Louhoum: The Little Prince of Belleville, pp.1-19.
Recommended :
- G.Noiriel, “Immigration: Amnesia and Memory”, French Historical Studies, 19: 2, 1995, pp. 367-380.
- M.Schain, “Policy-making and Defining Ethnic Minorities: the Case of Immigration in France”, New Community, 20: 1, October 2003.
- N.Green, Ready-to-wear and Ready-to-work: a Century of Industry and Immigrants in Paris and New York, Durham: Durham University Press, 1997 (chap. 9 “Economic and Ethnic Identities in the Parisian Patchwork”, pp. 251-279). [RC]
Excursion: Friday, March 18, 10-12: Belleville
Week 5. March 21-25
Algerian Immigration: the Colonial Legacy
FIRST PAPER DUE, Friday 25, 3pm
Readings :
- J.Ardagh, France in the New Century, pp. 219-243.
- N.MacMaster, Introduction in Colonial Migrants and Racism: Algerians in France 1900-1962, NY: St Martin ’s Press, 1997, pp. 1-21. [CR]
- A.Sayad, “An Exemplary Immigration” in The Suffering of the Immigrant, Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2004, pp. 63-87. [Class Hand-out]
Recommended :
- D. Maghraoui, “French Identity, Islam, and North-Africans: Colonial Legacies, Post-colonial Realities”, in T.Stovall & G. Van Den Abbeele (eds), French Civilization and its Discontents, Nationalism, Colonialism, Race, Lexington books, 2003, pp. 213-234 [RS]
- A. Sayad, “El Ghorba: From Original Sin to Collective Lie”, Ethnography, Vol.1, No.2, (2000), pp.147-171
Week 6. March 28-April 1
Exclusion in French Society: Welfare Policies and Urban Segregation
Readings :
- J.Ardagh, France in the New Century, pp. 187-219.
- A.Hargreaves, “Politics and Public Policy” in Immigration, ‘Race’ and Ethnicity in Contemporary France, London: Routledge, 1995, pp 177-209. [CR]
- L.Wacquant, “Red Belt, Black Belt: Racial Division, Class Inequality, and the State in the French Urban Periphery and the American Ghetto” in E.Mingione (ed), Urban Poverty and the “Underclass”: A Reader, NY: Basil Blackwell, 1996, pp. 234-274. [CR]
Recommended :
- D.Beland & R.Hansen, “Reforming the French Welfare State: Solidarity, Social Exclusion and the Three Crises of Citizenship”, West European Politics, 23: 1, January 2000.
R.Lieberman, “A Tale of Two Countries: The Politics of Color-blindness in France and the United States ”, French Politics, Culture and Society, 19:3, Fall 2001, pp. 32-59
Week 7. April 4-8
Racism and Anti-Semitism in France
Readings :
- M.Silverman, “Assimilation and Difference” in Deconstructing the Nation: Immigration, Racism and Citizenship in Modern France, London: Routledge, 1992. [CR]
- J.Fetzer, “Recent Attitudes toward Immigration in France” in Public Attitudes toward Immigration in the United States France and Germany, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp.110-122. [CR]
- P.Birnbaum, “Assessing Anti-Semitism in France” in Antisemitism in France: a Political History from Léon Blum to the Present, Oxford: Blackwell, 1992. [CR]
Recommended :
- G.Ford, Fascist Europe. The Rise of Racism and Xenophobia, Pluto Press,1991. [RS]
- E.Balibar & I.Wallerstein, Race, Nation, Class. Ambiguous Identities, Verso, 1991, chap. 1 “Is there a ‘Neo-Racism’ ?” pp. 17-28 [RS]
- P-A. Taguieff, Rising from the Muck: the New Anti-Semitism in Europe, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004. [RS] (on order)
Midterm Exam: Thursday, April 7 (12:30-2:30pm)
Dossier: What's New about Judeophobia and Islamophobia?
Part III: Social Groups and Political Mobilizations
Week 8. April 18-22
Parties and Elections
Readings :
- J.Ardagh, France in the New Century, pp. 1-40.
- R.Tiersky, “Political Parties: The Centering of Right and Left” in France in the New Europe, Wadsworth, 1994, pp. 89-119. [CR]
- D.Hanley,“Humiliation and Recovery: Parties in the Fifth Republic” in Party, Society and Government: Republican Democracy in France, NY: Berghahn Books, 2002 (chap. 7: , pp. 144-167). [CR]
Recommended :
- S. Hazereesingh, Political Traditions in Modern France, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, chap 10 “Gaullism and the Quest for National Unity” pp. 261-287 ; or chap. 11 “The Implosion of the Communist Tradition”, pp. 288-314. [RS]
- J.Marcus, The National Front and French Politics, NYU Press, 1995, chap 5 “The National Front’s Programme and Ideology”, pp. 100-130. [RS]
Week 9. April 25-29
The 2002 Presidential Elections and the Rise of National Front
Readings :
- J.Ardagh, France in the New Century , pp. 243-256.
- P.Brechon & S.Kumar Mitra, “The National Front in France : The Emergence of an Extreme Right Protest Movement”, Comparative Politics, 25: 1, October 1992, pp. 63-82.
- E.Declair, “Voting for the National Front” in Politics on the Fringe. The People, Policies, and Organization of the French National Front, Duke University Press, 1999, pp. 172-192 [CR]
- M.Lewis-Beck (ed.), Introduction & Chapter 2, The French Voter: Before and After the 2002 Elections, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. [CR]
Dossier: The French Presidential Elections of 2002
Week 10. May 2-6
French Women in Politics: From the Right to Vote to the Fight for Parity
GUEST LECTURE
May 3, 3-4pm - Patrick Weil on
“The French Republic and its Diversity: Immigration, 'Laïcité' and Affirmative Action”
Readings:
- J.Ardagh, France in the New Century, pp.597-619.
- J.W.Scott,“Citizens but Not Individuals: The Vote and After” in Only Paradoxes to Offer: French Feminists and the Rights of Man, Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press, 1996, pp. 161-175. [CR]
- J.W.Scott, “French Universalism in the Nineties”, Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, 15: 2, 2004, pp. 32-53.
- J.Corbett, “Cherchez la Femme! Sexual Equality in Politics and Affirmative Action in France”, The French Review, 74: 5, April 2001. [CR]
Recommended:
Week 11. May 9-13
Sexuality in the Public Sphere : the PACS and the Controversy on Same-sex Marriages
SECOND ASSIGNMENT DUE, Tuesday, May 10 (updated)
Readings :
- R.Nye, “The Pacte Civil de Solidarité and the History of Sexuality”, French Policitics, Culture and Society, 21: 1, Spring 2003.
- A.Garreta, “Re-enchanting the Republic: «PACS», Parité and le Symbolique”, Yale French studies, June 2001.
- E.Fassin, “Same Sex, Different Politics: «Gay Marriage» Debates in France and the United States”, Public Culture, 13: 2, 2001, pp. 215-232.
Week 12. May 16-20
Decline of French Traditional Political Contests (Trade Unions and Working Class Movements) and New Social Movements
Readings :
- J.Ardagh, France in the New Century, pp.162-174.
- S.Waters, “New Social Movement Politics in France: the Rise of Civic Forms of Mobilization”, West European Politics, 21: 3, 1998.
- S.Berger, “French Democracy Without Borders ? (Anti-Globalization Movement in France)”, French Politics, Culture and Society, 20: 1, Spring 2002. *See Chico for hardcopy of this article.
Recommended :
- J.Duyvendak,“Seven Social Movements” in The Power of Politics: New Social Movements in France, Boulder, Colo: Westview Press, 1995. [RC]
Week 13. May 23-27
Review and Final Exam
Final Exam: Thursday, May 26 (12:30-2:30pm)
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