The FPG-APSA had another active year thanks to the contributions of our everincreasing

FRENCH POLITICS AND POLICY GROUP NEWS No.14/November 2014 FPG/APSA Coordinators: Sylvain Brouard, Centre E. Durkheim, Sciences Po Bordeaux and Jennife...
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FRENCH POLITICS AND POLICY GROUP NEWS No.14/November 2014 FPG/APSA Coordinators: Sylvain Brouard, Centre E. Durkheim, Sciences Po Bordeaux and Jennifer Fredette, Ohio University e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Website: http://www.wsu.edu/~frg/ French Politics, Policy and Society Group (FPPSG)/PSA Coordinators: Nick Startin, Lecturer in French and European Studies, Department of Politics, Language, and International Studies, University of Bath and Aurelien Mondon, Lecturer in French Politics, Department of Politics, Language, and International Studies, University of Bath e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] _______________________________________________________________________ GREETINGS TO FPG MEMBERS The FPG-APSA had another active year thanks to the contributions of our everincreasing membership. Three panels were organized by the FPG and AFSP related groups along with the Canadian Politics Group as well as Elections and Voting Behavior Division. Special congratulations go to Rahsaan Maxwell, whose paper entitled “The overlap between economic and cultural threat: Accepting racial minorities in the French national community” was selected for the 2014 Frank L. Wilson APSA paper award. Maxwell is one of the latest generation of US scholars studying France. The French Politics Group is proud to recognize and support excellence in research on France. In 2015, we will be once again awarding the Wilson Prize as well as the biennial Stanley Hoffmann Best Article Award on French Politics and the George Lavau Dissertation Award. During our 2014 meeting in Washington, D.C., we took a moment to thank Amy Mazur for all her hard work as co-convener over the years. She has graciously passed the mantle on to Jennifer Fredette of Ohio University, thereby continuing the tradition of maintaining one French and one American at the helm of the French Politics Group. There are three ways in which you can participate at the APSA meetings: propose a panel, propose a short course, or coordinate a working group (see below for more details). Please read on for more details on our collective accomplishments and future. The first half of the newsletter is on the FPG-APSA and the second half on the news of the French Policy and Politics group of the Political Studies Association in the UK, another indicator of our international scope. As always, we would like to thank people and institutions supporting of the FPG, and, among them, particularly Isabelle Guinaudeau and Marcos Ancelovici. Bien Cordialement, Sylvain Brouard & Jennifer Fredette

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News from the French Politics Groups-APSA PARTICIPATION IN APSA, 2014 Find below the FPG and AFSP panels and papers presented during APSA’s 2014 annual meeting in Washington, D.C. The Electoral Connection in France and Europe Sponsor: FPG Chair: John D. Wilkerson, University of Washington Papers: The Electoral Connection in Belgium: First Results From a Mixed-method Approach Jean-Benoit Pilet, Universite Libre de Bruxelles; Nathalie Brack, University of Oxford French MEPs and Their Constituents: The Challenges of Territorial Representation at Supranational Level Olivier Costa, CNRS Going Home in France. French MP’s in Their District Eric Kerrouche, Sciences Po, Bordeaux Can Public Engagement Address Trust in Parliament? Christina Leston-Bandeira, University of Hull Who Goes Local? Preferential Voting and Geographical Focus in Election Campaigns Asa Bengtsson, Abo Akademi University Discussants: Shane Martin, University of Leicester; Nathalie Brack, University of Oxford The 2014 French Local Elections Co-sponsors: Elections and Voting Behavior & AFSP Chair: Rémi Lefebvre, University of Lille 2 Papers: Strategic voting in the second round of a two-round system: The 2014 French municipal élections Bernard Dolez, Université Paris 1, Annie Laurent, CNRS-Ceraps, Lille 2, André Blais, Université de Montréal, The return of canvassing? The re-invention of new forms of electoral Mobilization Rémi Lefebvre, University of Lille 2

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A political economy forecast for the 2014 French municipal elections. Véronique Jérome, University of Paris XI-Sud Orsay, Bruno Jérôme, University of Paris II Pantheon Assas, Inter-municipality in the 2014 municipal election campaigns in France Rémy Le Saout, Université de Nantes Discussant: Martial Foucault, Sciences Po Political Protest in France and Canada Co-Sponsors: Canadian Politics & AFSP Chair: Amy Mazur, Washington State University Papers: Political Protest 2.0: Social Media and the 2012 Student Strike in the Province of Quebec, Canada Vincent Raynauld, Emerson College; Mireille Lalancette, Université du Québec à Trois- Rivières; Sofia Tourigny-Kone, Université du Québec à Trois- Rivières; Zachary Spicer, University of Toronto; Robert Maciel, University of Western Ontario Who are the Members of the Front National — Evidence from Interview Research Daniel Stockemer, University of Ottawa From Political Fringe to Political Mainstream?: The Front National and the 2014 Municipal and European Elections in France Gabriel Goodliffe, Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico A France of Regions or a Unified Non to the European Parliament? Explaining Front National under Performance in EP Elections. Nathan William Henceroth, University of Nevada-Las Vegas Discussant Earl Fry, Brigham Young University PARTICIPATION IN APSA, 2015 September 3rd - September 6th, 2015 San Francisco, California Diversities Reconsidered: Politics, and Political Science, in the Twenty-First Century The American Political Science Association’s Annual Meeting for 2015 will be held in San Francisco, California. Proposals for papers, panels and roundtables need to be submitted through the APSA web-based system by December 15. Proposals must also be 3

submitted to the FPG coordinators by this deadline. Given our limited number of panel slots, a pre-requisite for all submissions is co-sponsorship, so please indicate your division cosponsor in your application. We will still accept proposals for individual papers, but we will give priority to complete panels and will place papers on preexisting panels, where possible. We also will give priority consideration to panels addressing this year’s conference theme (https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/APSANET/0fe8a298-a7b5-47ff-97ae3949fb2425da/UploadedImages/Theme%20Statement%20for%202015%20APSA%20Pr ogram.pdf). Be sure to let us know you are doing this; we will also contact the theme program chairs on your behalf. If you have questions, do not hesitate to contact us; we are happy to help you with the APSA web based submission system, which can be difficult to navigate. THREE WAYS TO PARTICIPATE IN APSA Short Courses at APSA – Also remember the short course format at APSA. You can hold half day or day long workshops on a given topic the Wednesday prior to the conference. The deadline is not until mid March for this and short courses are automatically accepted. This is a great format for teaching workshops or coordinating a new or on-going project. Working Group - A specific working group on French Politics can be organized just prior to the meetings, through APSA’s coordinating system. A working group attends all relevant panels’ sessions and meets regularly throughout the meetings outside of those sessions to discuss related issues. The group has organized a French Politics working group in the past; members are welcome to lead one and we can help you with the organization. AFSP Related Group -- The AFSP welcomes paper and panel proposals on a wide range of topics related to the study and/or practice of French and European Political Science. Proposals that include political scientists from France as well as other countries are encouraged along with proposals that focus on the theme of this year’s meetings. Cosponsorships with other groups/divisions are required for acceptance. The group is co administered with the French Politics Group (APSA). CONTACTS: Jennifer Fredette, co-convener of the FPG, Department of Political Science, Ohio University, E-mail: [email protected]; Sylvain Brouard, co-convener of the FPG, Centre E. Durkheim, Sciences Po Bordeaux, E-mail: [email protected]. FRENCH POLITICS GROUP AWARDS Stanley Hoffmann Best Article Award on French Politics Administered by the FPG with the AFSP and financed by Sciences Po Paris, this award is given every other year to the best English-language article on French Politics published in any peer reviewed journal during the previous two years. The award was first given in 2007. Articles may be on any aspect of French Politics and the selection committee 4

consults a full range of journals that publish scholarship on French Politics. Prize money is 1900 euros and the recipient is required to accept the award at the annual APSA meetings the year the award is made. For the list of abstracts and journals consulted, go to the FPG website, http://www.wsu.edu/~frg/. Articles published in 2013 and 2014 will be considered for the 2015 award. 2013 Award 337 articles published in 2011 and 2012 were considered. Award Committee: Bruno Palier (Centre d’Etudes Européennes, Sciences Po Paris), André Blais (Université de Montréal), and David Laitin (Stanford University). Recipient: Peter H. Egger and Doina M. Radulescu were distinguished for the following article: “Family policy and the number of children: Evidence from a natural experiment,” European Journal of Political Economy, 28 (2012), 524-539. 2011 Award 301 articles published in 2009 and 2010 in 143 different journals were considered. Award Committee: John Gaffney (Aston University), Jonah Levy (University California, Berkeley) and Annie Laurent (CERAPS). Recipient: Kathleen Thelen (MIT) and Bruno Palier (Centre d’Etudes Européennes, Sciences Po Paris) "Institutionalizing Dualism: Complementarities and Change in France and Germany," Politics & Society 38: 1 (March 2010), 119-148. 2009 Award 181 articles published in 2007 and 2008 were consider in 99 different journals; 139 journals were searched. Award Committee: Frank Baumgartner (Penn State University); Jocelyn Evans (University of Salford); Sophie Duschesne (CEVIPOF). Recipient: Eliza Ferguson (University of New Mexico) “Domestic Violence by Another Name: Crimes of Passion in Fin-de-Siècle Paris” Journal of Women's History. Volume 19, Number 4, Winter 2007. 2007 Award 223 articles published in 2005 through 2006 were considered from 112 refereed journals. The committee was comprised of Stanley Hoffmann--Chair (Harvard University), Gérard Grunberg (Sciences Po Paris), Pierre Hassner (Sciences Po Paris). The committee selected the following three winners, with the top prize going to James Shields. James Shields (University of Warwick) for his January 2006 article in Parliamentary Affairs, “Political Representation in France: A Crisis of Democracy?” David Yost (US Naval Postgraduate School) for his June 2006 article in International Affairs, “France’s New Nuclear Doctrine” Elaine Thomas (Bard College) for her March 2006 article in Ethnic and Racial Studies, “Keeping Identity at A Distance: Explaining France’s New Legal Restrictions on the Islamic Headscarf”.

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Frank L. Wilson Best APSA Paper Award Inaugurated in 2004, the award is given each year for papers presented on French politics at the previous year’s meeting. Papers may be comparative as long as a significant part focuses on France. The Wilson Award winner for 2014 is Rahsaan Maxwell, author of “The overlap between economic and cultural threat: Accepting racial minorities in the French national community.” This article is a conceptual and an empirical contribution to the study of the acceptance of racial minorities in the national community. The awards committee particularly appreciated how Maxwell challenges the received wisdom that we should consider perceptions of economic and cultural threat separate of one another. Through sophisticated argumentation and clever experimental design, Maxwell argues that the two are mutually constitutive. An economic indicator, such as an occupation, may indeed have cultural and symbolic dimensions. Maxwell concludes that there is more acceptance towards minorities as bankers or civil servants than as chefs or winemakers, i.e. occupations felt more important to French identity. This is a paper that pushes the boundaries of immigration and ethnic studies and compels us to ask additional questions about what “integration” means in contemporary France. The paper was selected from a pool of 12 papers that were available for download. The selection was based on the schedule of the French Politics Group at the 2014 APSA meeting and a search in the APSA database for papers that included “France” or “French” in their abstracts. 2013 Award Committee: Marcos Ancelovici (Universtié du Québec à Montréal), Isabelle Guinaudeau (CNRS/Sciences Po Grenoble), Jennifer Fredette (Ohio University). Georges Lavau Dissertation Award The French Politics Group awards a prize for the best dissertation on contemporary (twentieth and twentieth-first century) French politics (or with a significant component on French politics). The prize, co-sponsored by the FPG and French Politics, Culture & Society, brings with it an award of $100 (and great prestige). Previous winners have reached the highest levels of this profession—in the spirit of Georges Lavau. The award was first made in 1993 and is given every three years. Previous awardees include: Crystal M. Fleming 2012, (PhD, Harvard University) Marcos Ancelovici 2008 (PhD, MIT) Cindy Skach 2005 (PhD, Harvard University) Virginie Guiraudon 1999 (PhD, Harvard University) John Huber 1996 (PhD, University of Rochester) Amy Mazur 1993 (PhD, New York University) The 2015 award will consider English-language dissertations defended between January 2012 and December 2014. 6

News from the French Politics, Policy and Society Group-PSA Since September 2010, the UK Political Studies Association’s French Politics and Policy specialist group has been convened by Alistair Cole and Helen Drake. As of September 2014, Nick Startin (University of Bath) and Aurelien Mondon (University of Bath) have taken over as coordinators of the group. The group continues to expand and currently has 72 members in the UK, France and beyond. PARTICIPATION IN PSA, 2014 The group had three panels at the 2014 PSA annual conference in Manchester on various aspects of French politics, all of which were well attended. Thanks to all paper givers and participants. Panel 1: Another step in legitimising the far right? The Front National in the context of the 2014 European elections Chair: Dr Nicholas Startin (University of Bath) Since the early 1980s the Front National (FN) has been a significant feature on the French political landscape, performing strongly in national, local and European elections. It appeared to reach a peak with Jean-Marie Le Pen's dramatic passage to the second round of the 2002 Presidential elections. However, the election of Marine Le Pen as leader of the party in January 2011 and her subsequent 18% of the vote in the first round of the 2012 Presidential elections have further galvanised a party which seems now firmly anchored as the third electoral force in France. With some commentators and polls predicting that the FN could be the leading French party at the 2014 European elections, the purpose of this panel is to examine how Marine Le Pen and the FN's populist challenge have become increasingly mainstreamed and how the party has come to exert an ever-growing influence over political debate in France. James Shields’ paper focuses on the 'de-demonisation' strategy adopted by the FN in order to become a more viable electoral choice and intensify pressure on the mainstream parties. Aurelien Mondon's paper analyses how a new form of virulent and exclusionary republicanism has become hegemonic in France, and how the FN has both influenced and profited from this. Finally, Nick Startin discusses how FN elite rhetoric has increasingly deployed a pro-sovereignty, 'Euromondialist' critique of mainstream parties’ programmes, a vital part of its strategy to maximise its electoral potential in the European elections and beyond. Papers: The Front National in resurgence: electoral gains and prospects - Dr James Shields (Aston University) From the margins to the mainstream: 'Europe' as an issue for the Radical Right in France - Dr Nicholas Startin (University of Bath)

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A republican Front National? Secularism as a basis for a new exclusionary hegemony Dr Aurélien Mondon (University of Bath) Panel 2: The Radicalisation of French Party Politics Chair: Professor Helen Drake (Loughborough University) This panel considers the radicalization of French party politics. Part of the movement towards radicalisation can be attributed to growing euroscepticism. Goodliffe contends that the ongoing European sovereign debt crisis provides an unprecedented test of Europe’s democratic vocation. It heralds the resurgence of the forces of nationalism that the European project had formerly done so well to curb but which now, in its current guise and orientation, it appears to be increasingly fueling. By tracking a progressively neoliberal course, the integration process has (arguably) undone the systems of regulated capitalism that restored European nation states to economic health and democracy and underlay and impelled their confederal cooperation through the post-war era. Party radicalisation in France also has domestic roots, as well as European and international ones. Tassiopoulos maintains that the strong showing of the FN is ultimately likely to benefit President Hollande, as it divides UMP factions into rival camps Papers: Fatal attraction: the UMP in the arms of siren Marina - Dr Georges Tassiopoulos (University of East Paris) Comparing Euroscepticisms: Democracy, Nationalism and European Integration in France and Germany - Dr Gabriel Goodliffe (Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico) In or Out: Political strategies of the radical left in France and Europe - Mr Enrico Reuter (University of York) Panel 3: Contemporary French protest cultures Chair Mr Graham Hayes Discussion of social protest in France has tended to construct it as an essential part of national political culture, a defining feature of the ‘contentious French’. Yet such general accounts do little to explain the relationships between the broad cultural and ideational environment and the production of specific narratives of struggle, particularly in conflicts over legitimacy. Here, we explore three contemporary protest events – the sequestration of company bosses, the illegal destruction of genetically-modified crops, and memory contests over May 1968 – to discuss how protest is situated within dominant narratives of action, and how these narratives recursively construct the cultural meaning of protest in France. Discussion of social protest in France has tended to construct it as an essential [part of national political culture, a defining feature of the ‘contentious French’. Yet such general accounts do little to explain the relationships between the broad cultural and ideational environment and the production of specific narratives of struggle,

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particularly in conflicts over legitimacy. Here, we explore three contemporary protest events – the sequestration of company bosses, the illegal destruction of geneticallymodified crops, and memory contests over May 1968 – to discuss how protest is situated within dominant narratives of action, and how these narratives recursively construct the cultural meaning of protest in France. Papers: Telling Stories in Court: Civil Disobedience and Republican Normativity in the Trials of Faucheurs Volontaire - Mr Graeme Hayes (Aston University) Communities of Memory and the Convenient Consensus on Mai ’68 - Dr Chris Reynolds (NTU) Following the success of the Manchester conference, more panels have been proposed for the PSA Conference in Sheffield in March/April 2015. A report will follow in the next newsletter. FUTURE PLANS The new convenors are keen to facilitate academic exchange of all kinds and invite ideas for conferences, workshops or other events around the general theme of French politics. E-mail either of the new coordinators if you would like to join the group – [email protected] or [email protected]. To find out more about our future plans/events follow us on Twitter: @PSAFrPol

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