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14621. Oublieuse mémoire

Author:
Octave Debary
Publication Date:
06-2001
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Le petit musée consacré aux oeuvres d'Ambroise Fleury, à Cléry, n'est plus aujourd'hui qu'une attraction touristique mineure. La plupart des visiteurs s'y rendent après un déjeuner au Clos Joli, que tous les guides de France sont unanimes à célébrer comme un des hauts lieux du pays. Les guides signalent cependant l'existence du musée, avec la mention « vaut un détour ». On trouve dans ses cinq salles la plupart des oeuvres de mon oncle qui ont survécu à la guerre, à l'occupation, aux combats de la Libération et à toutes les vicissitudes et lassitudes que notre peuple a connues. (...) Malgré le peu d'intérêt qu'il suscite, et la modestie de la subvention qu'il reçoit de la municipalité, le musée ne risque pas de fermer ses portes, il est trop lié à notre histoire, mais la plupart du temps ses salles sont vides, car nous vivons une époque où les Français cherchent plutôt à oublier qu'à se souvenir. Reprenant la question qu'Adorno adresse à la poésie, François Mairesse, dans son analyse de l'histoire des musées, pose la question suivante : « Peut-on encore concevoir un musée après Auschwitz ? ». Dans la logique de mon propos, la véritable question qui est ici posée est la suivante : peut-on encore concevoir d'oublier-après Auschwitz ? Concevoir d'oublier après Auschwitz reviendrait à accepter l'idée de pouvoir oublier Auschwitz. Le musée est un instrument d'oubli. D'où l'effroyable question de savoir si l'on peut encore faire des musées après le drame d'Auschwitz. On a continué de faire des musées, on a même fait un musée d'Auschwitz dont Primo Levi a parlé.

14622. The Gallic Rooster Crows Again: The Paradox of French Anti-Americanism

Author:
Richard Kuisel
Publication Date:
06-2001
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
What might a historical perspective provide toward understanding the current bout of bashing Uncle Sam? There is a pattern to Gallic anti-Americanism. It peaks, as it did in the 1950s and again today, when the U.S. postures as a socio-economic model and threatens a cultural invasion. But there are also new features to contemporary attacks on America. What has intensified French perceptions of American domination stems from changes within France as the nation pursues competitiveness and openness. These changes have brought a perception among the French that they have lost an idealized construction of "France" and are increasingly powerless over forces like globalization and European integration. Globalization in particular magnifies the presence and power of America. Anxiety about loss is transferred to an America that appears intrusive and selfserving. Neo-anti-Americanism is a form of retaliation—retaliation against a seemingly omnipotent United States which tries to impose the self-serving process of globalization on France; retaliation against our obstructionist, expendable and unreliable hegemony in international politics; and retaliation against American promotion of our flawed social model, which challenges a traditional construction of Frenchness.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Europe

14623. Les élections locales françaises de mars 2001: un échec pour la majorité

Author:
Gérard Grunberg
Publication Date:
06-2001
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
The local elections of spring 2001 constituted a defeat for the Socialist government. The outcome of these elections in large and medium-sized cities show significant losses for the Left––despite Socialist victories in Paris and Lyon––and especially for the Communists whose numbers continue to decline. The only left-wing party to improve its position was the Green Party. These results do not reflect a clear rejection of the government by the public, but they outline two reasons for the Left to worry: First, although polls seemed to be favorable to the Left, the elections' disappointing outcome shifted the political climate in a way that benefits the Right. While the Left was politically destablilized, the election results boosted the opposition's morale and Jacques Chirac now felt confident in taking the offensive in his race for the presidency. Second, the election results––more specifically the analysis of how votes shifted between the two rounds––reveal two developments: The Right did a better job than the Left at mobilizing its potential voters for the second round; and in the context of the National Front schism, more far-right voters than in the past voted for moderate-right candidates. Such trends suggest that the 2002 elections will be a challenge for a more divided and instable "gauche plurielle." The local elections of 2001 moved the Left from the role of favorite to that of challenger.
Topic:
Government

14624. A Tale of Two Countries: The Politics of Color-Blindness in France and the United States

Author:
Robert Lieberman
Publication Date:
06-2001
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
France and the United States are commonly portrayed as proceeding from diametrically opposed presumptions in their approaches to race policy. But accounts of race policy in these two countries that emphasize cultural and ideological obscure crucial similarities between French and American race policy and thus fail to explain national differences convincingly. Despite similarly enshrining principles of color-blindness in antidiscrimination law, French and American race policy took very different directions in the 1960s and 1970s. France adhered closely to color-blindness in the face of persistent and even mounting discrimination while the United States moved toward an ambivalent embrace of race-conscious remedies for discrimination. The answer to this puzzle lies in the politics of minority incorporation, particularly the kind of state power that was created and mobilized to implement antidiscrimination policy and the structure of political opportunities available to proponents of race-conscious policy. Ironically, the "weak" American state, which produced a compromised vision of civil rights law, proved stronger at promoting the enforcement of antidiscrimination law, while the "stronger" French state has mounted a relatively anemic enforcement effort.
Political Geography:
United States and America

14625. From Republican Political Culture to Republican Democracy: The Benefits and Burdens of History

Author:
Dick Howard
Publication Date:
06-2001
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
The essay claims that there has been a consistent political logic whose course can be traced across the Ancient régime down through modern times. It is marked by the quest for unity, the refusal of particularity, and the rhetoric of republicanism. But, since left and right were distinguished by their attitudes toward the revolution, the emergence of the "social question" made it necessary for the left to justify its divisions. That was the role of Marxism, which functioned in France not as a theory but as an ideology of legitimation. The achievement of Mitterrand against this background can be seen as the "corruption of the republic." However, the logic of the "affaires" that have emerged may make possible for the first time in French history an autonomous magistrature. As a result, the French quest to realize a democratic republic may be replaced by the more modern politics of republican democracy.
Political Geography:
France

14626. The Sudden Memory of Torture: The Algerian War in French Discourse, 2000-2001

Author:
William B. Cohen
Publication Date:
06-2001
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
During the Algerian War successive governments denied that they employed torture in the conduct of the conflict. The French public during the war and thereafter were, however, well informed on the brutal means used in the North African conflict. In the summer of 2000 an Algerian woman tortured by the French gave an interview to Le monde. The publicity surrounding this interview and a subsequent interview given by General Aussaresses, head of the secret operations in Algeria, created a public furor over France\'s record in Algeria. In a much publicized petition, some of those who had opposed the Algerian war asked the French government to issue an apology for its acts. France\'s political leaders balked, refusing to take such a step. As a result of the furor created in 2000-2001 there was a greater sense of consciousness of the darkest sides of French colonialism. If the French government eventually does issue a public apology, it will largely be as a result of the dramatic debates of the last year.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
France and North Africa

14627. Torturante mémoire

Author:
Christian Delacampagne
Publication Date:
06-2001
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
The regular use of torture by the French army during the Algerian War raises at least two questions: 1) How was such torture made possible? Incapable of facing public opinion–– which was primarily in favor of colonization up until the end of the 1960s––the leaders of the Fourth Republic erred by giving full power to the army to crush the insurrection. It even took General De Gaulle two years to correct the situation. 2) What have we done since then to ensure that this would not happen again? As shown by the following facts, France has certainly not done what is necessary: It never formally recognized its responsibility for torture; it never tried to punish the principal culprits, whether politicians or military; it does not even seem to have learned from its past mistakes. Indeed, successive French governments continue to adopt a complacent stance towards similar practices (torture, summary executions) that consecutive Algerian governments have been covering up for several years – as if the use of torture should not be systematically condemned.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Algeria

14628. Homosexuality in France

Author:
Michael Sibalis
Publication Date:
06-2001
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Gay and lesbian studies have almost everywhere experienced an incredible rate of growth in the last decade or so, but until very recently French scholarship has lagged far behind. In particular, professional historians in France have been reticent to research the history of homosexuality, in large part because of the conservatism of the academic establishment. (Young scholars have feared that an interest in gay history would hinder their careers.) As a result, much of the existing gay history of France has been produced by "Anglo-Saxons" (as the French call anyone who speaks or writes in English), and to the extent that "gay studies" have made their appearance in France, it is journalists, sociologists, and legal scholars rather than historians who have led the way.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
France

14629. Overcoming the Cold War Legacy in Korea? The Inter-Korean Summit One Year Later

Author:
Young Whan Kihl
Publication Date:
09-2001
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:
International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:
The move toward rapprochement between the leaders of North and South Korea, symbolized by their well-documented embrace at the June 2000 summit, gave reasons for hope and new expectations for reconciliation between the two Koreas. The enthusiasm and euphoria generated by this summit, however, failed to move forward to concrete steps toward genuine peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. The reason has less to do with the enthusiasm of the summer as the hard realities of the political and economic issues confronted by each Korea and the geopolitical situation surrounding the Korean peninsula. So far Seoul's engagement policy toward North Korea has given an impression of one side giving and yielding without due reciprocity by the other side. This work will address the post-summit developments in inter-Korean relations, marking the one-year anniversary of the June 2000 Korean summit. It will reassess the meaning and significance of the summit talks by reevaluating the sunshine policy of ROK President Kim Dae Jung, analyzing the progress and problems for implementation of the June 15, 2000, joint declaration, and speculating about the DPRK's possible opening and its reform policy measures.
Political Geography:
South Korea, North Korea, and Korea

14630. Russian Policy toward the Korean Peninsula, 1991-2001

Author:
Jane Shapiro Zacek
Publication Date:
09-2001
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:
International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:
In July of 2000, Russian Federation (RF) President Vladimir Putin spent two days in Pyongyang, North Korea, the first Russian (or Soviet) head of state ever to visit that country. Newly elected President in his own right in March 2000, Putin wasted no time promoting his East Asia foreign policy agenda, including presidential visits to South Korea, China, and elsewhere in the region within the past year.
Political Geography:
Russia, China, East Asia, South Korea, North Korea, Soviet Union, Korea, Sinai Peninsula, and Pyongyang