French Political Culture: Traditions and Change

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 5

This module offers an introduction to aspects of French political culture, particularly Republican culture, focusing on the Fifth Republic (from 1958), but referring to previous Republics going back to the Revolution of 1789. We will examine core traditions and practices in French political culture, explore their origins in French pasts and consider their resonance in contemporary French politics. The module is free-standing and does not suppose any particular knowledge of French politics.

Political debate often takes the form of a dialectic between forces of renewal and appeals to a shared political past. In French politics, this dialectic takes on particular significance, as, on the one hand, French political history going back to 1789 has been marked by abrupt, sometimes violent, discontinuities and ‘ruptures’, while on the other hand, much of the common currency of Western political discourses originated in, or was dramatically informed by, French models or practice. Thus, notions of ‘Left’ and ‘Right’, the doctrine of human rights, and modern values of citizenship, nationhood, popular sovereignty or laïcité, can all be traced to French origins, while French political culture has advanced, sometimes slowly and painfully, through debates around immigration, colonialism and its legacy, women’s suffrage, or on the role of the state or the exercise of power.