The “Populist Moment”: Towards a “post-liberal” Europe?
Les Cahiers européens de Sciences Po n° 01/2017, CHOPIN, Thierry
Nowadays, the increasing defiance of citizens of Western democracies towards political institutions and classes governing their national democracies centres around a “populist moment”, which can be regarded as a the symptom of a crisis of liberalism. If the rise of populisms finds its roots within specific national contexts, this phenomenon features some general characteristics – anti-elitism, anti-pluralism and anti-liberalism – that weakens liberal democracy, and more specifically, European democracies.
These trends must lead us to redefine liberalism in order to challenge the excesses and inadequacies of political and economic systems, by putting an emphasis on the limits of the State and the market, as well as on the respective limits of demands for security, freedom and identity.
To counter this “post-liberal” populism, the UE must take into account several aspirations expressed by its citizens: the need for community and identity through the issue of European borders, a response to the social question as well as a better protection regarding economic and security matters.
Therefore, a narrative on a “regalian Europe” is necessary. Such objective aims to strengthen the sovereignty of public authorities, be it at the national and European levels, to protect the physical and economic security of European citizens, while allowing the greatest possible space for individual liberty. Faced with this “populist moment”, it is that precise balance we need to redefine.
http://www.sciencespo.fr/centre-etudes-europeennes/fr/publications_cahiers
France in quest of a European narrative
Les Cahiers européens de Sciences Po n°04/2016, ROZENBERG, Olivier
For a long time France’s political leaders have justified France’s participation in European integration by presenting Europe as a condition to protect national power. The idea of “powerful Europe” seems increasingly ill adapted to the position France occupies in the European Union. However although erosion is slow, national political leaders are proving incapable of drawing up an alternative national narrative for both cultural and institutional reasons. To the anti-European credo of a triumphant Front National in the European elections of May 2014 we might add diffuse Euroscepticism amongst the government parties.
http://www.sciencespo.fr/centre-etudes-europeennes/fr/publications_cahiers
Articles in peer review
FAUCHER, Florence et GARCIA, Nuria. France. European Journal of Political Research. décembre 2016, vol 55, n° 1, p. 99-105.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2047-8852.12122/abstract
GRASSO, Maria Teresa, FARRALL, Stephen, HAY, Colin, et al. Thatcher’s Children, Blair’s Babies, Political Socialization and Trickle-down Value Change: An Age, Period and Cohort Analysis. British Journal of Political Science. janvier 2017, p. 1-20.
To what extent are new generations ‘Thatcherite’? Using British Social Attitudes data for 1985–2012 and applying age-period-cohort analysis and generalized additive models, this article investigates whether Thatcher’s Children hold more right-authoritarian political values compared to other political generations. The study further examines the extent to which the generation that came of age under New Labour – Blair’s Babies – shares these values. The findings for generation effects indicate that the later political generation is even more right-authoritarian, including with respect to attitudes to redistribution, welfare and crime. This view is supported by evidence of cohort effects. These results show that the legacy of Thatcherism for left-right and libertarian-authoritarian values is its long-term shaping of public opinion through political socialization.
POLK, Jonathan, ROVNY, Jan, BAKKER, Ryan, et al. Explaining the salience of anti-elitism and reducing political corruption for political parties in Europe with the 2014 Chapel Hill Expert Survey data. Research & Politics. janvier 2017, vol 4, n° 1, p. 1-9.
This article addresses the variation of anti-corruption and anti-elite salience in party positioning across Europe. It demonstrates that while anti-corruption salience is primarily related to the (regional) context in which a party operates, anti-elite salience is primarily a function of party ideology. Extreme left and extreme conservative (TAN) parties are significantly more likely to emphasize anti-elite views. Through its use of the new 2014 Chapel Hill Expert Survey wave, this article also introduces the dataset.
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2053168016686915
ROVNY, Allison E. et ROVNY, Jan. Outsiders at the ballot box: operationalizations and political consequences of the insider–outsider dualism. Socio-Economic Review. janvier 2017, p. 1-25.
Recently, developed economies have witnessed an emerging dualism between the so-called labor market ‘insiders and outsiders’—two groups facing divergent levels of employment security and prospects. Those on the ‘inside’ occupy stable jobs, while those on the ‘outside’ confront increased levels of social and economic risks. There are, however, various prominent, but divergent, operationalizations of the insider–outsider phenomenon. While some scholars opt for indicators rooted in current labor market status of individuals, others prefer to consider occupational class groups as bases of the insider–outsider divide. As these operationalizations of outsiderness capture different profiles of outsiders, we test the extent to which they lead to consistent or inconsistent conclusions about electoral behavior. The article yields two consistent findings that are robust across all the operationalizations: that outsiders are less likely to vote for major right parties than are insiders, and that outsiders are more likely to abstain from voting. Additionally, we find that occupation-based outsiders tend to support radical right parties, while status-based outsiders rather opt for radical left parties—a finding supported by the association between social risk and authoritarian preferences. We test our expectations using multinomial logit models estimating vote choice on the first five waves of the European Social Survey from 2002 to 2010 across western Europe.