Mister Unpopular: François Hollande and the Exercise of Presidential Leadership, 2012–14

Kuhn, Raymond

doi:10.1080/09639489.2014.957960

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…From 2012, the Socialist Party held the Presidency (under François Hollande), Parliament, Senate, and majority of regions (Kuhn, 2014). Leftist parties had gained power following waves of street protestsagainst austerity, unemployment, inequality, pro-business responses to the Great Recession, and Sarkozy's coziness with the wealthy elite (Béroud and Yon, 2012: 170;Hewlett, 2012;Lux, 2015).…”

Section: Centre-left Governmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overcoming the global despondency trap: strengthening corporate accountability in supply chains

Evans

2019

Review of International Political Economy

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This paper reexamines why global collective action problems persist, and how to overcome them. Drawing on 140 interviews with campaigners, politicians, and businesses in 10 European countries, it suggests that many activists are stuck in a despondency trap. Never seeing radical reform, they lower their ambitions, and invest in more feasible but sub-optimal alternatives. This creates a negative feedback loop, in which the dearth of radical reform becomes self-fulfilling. But if reformists see advances at home and abroad, they may become more optimistic about collective mobilisation and break out of their despondency trap. This is shown by tracing the drivers of groundbreaking legislation. From 2018, large French firms must mitigate risks of environmental and human rights abuses in their global supply chains, or else be liable. This billthe world's first of its kind-was vociferously contested by businesses. But French campaigners and politicians persisted for four years, because they saw reasons for optimism. These include growing international support; public outcry; the French political culture (state intervention, and distrust of multinationals); together with a Centre-Left Government. Optimism galvanised relentless mobilisation. Legislative success in France then delivered a positive shock to activists across Europe, who were emboldened to launch similar campaigns and escape their despondency trap. I am extremely grateful to my Belgian, Britain, Dutch, French, German and Swiss participants, who shared their reflections with me, and provided useful comments on earlier drafts. This article has greatly benefited from constructive criticism from Michaël Aklin,

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Section: Centre-left Governmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overcoming the global despondency trap: strengthening corporate accountability in supply chains

Evans

2019

Review of International Political Economy

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“…This was the only option for avoiding extra fiscal measures that would cause further domestic political turmoil following the unprecedented disaster of the 2014 midterm regional elections (Kuhn 2014). Central to this strategy-as mentioned in the letter to the Commission in November-was the ongoing plan of Emmanuel Macron, Minister of the Economy since August 2014, to shake up the labour market.…”

Section: The Reformed Eurozone and Post-democracymentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-democracy and institutionalized austerity in France: budgetary politics during François Hollande’s presidency

Glencross

2018

Fr Polit

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This paper applies the concept of post-democracy coined by Crouch to shed light on the emerging political dynamics of macroeconomic policy coordination in the Eurozone as they applied to France during Hollande's presidency. Firstly, the paper explains the nature of EMU reform, characterized here as post-democratic by institutional design, before analysing its impact on France's budgetary politics. Finally, the French case involving Hollande's balancing act between supranational rules and domestic spending preferences is used as a way to reflect on the stability of this post-democratic arrangement for rescuing the Euro. The 2017 presidential election pitting Macron against Le Pen showed that post-democracy by design is sustainable only if the supply side of politics remains supportive of EMU-a condition undermined by the institutionalization of austerity, at least in France.

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“…The political context of the March 2015 departmental elections, however, was set not just by these spectacular recent gains for the FN, with its anti-immigration, anti-European Union, anti-establishment platform (Shields, 2014). The elections were held close to the midpoint of the most unpopular French presidency on record (Kuhn, 2014), with President Hollande's campaign promises of an end to austerity, a revitalized economy and a reversal of unemployment translating into public spending cuts, economic stagnation, relentlessly high joblessness (10.3%) and public debt exceeding 97% of GDP. 2 The spectacle in national politics was of a Socialist government split over its own economic recovery programme facing a UMP riven by leadership rivalries and divided over the best strategy to adopt against the FN.…”

Section: Electoral and Political Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Departmental elections and the changing landscape of French politics

Shields

2016

Regional & Federal Studies

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The departmental elections of March 2015 redrew the French political landscape, setting the new terms of electoral competition in advance of the regional elections of December 2015 and, more critically, the presidential election of April-May 2017. These elections saw the far-right National Front (FN) come top in both rounds only to be outmanoeuvred by the mainstream parties and prevented from winning a single department. As a case study in vote-seat distortion, the elections highlighted a voting system effective in keeping the FN out of executive power but deficient in terms of democratic representation and inadequate as a response to the new tripartite realities of France's changing political landscape.

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Mister Unpopular: François Hollande and the Exercise of Presidential Leadership, 2012–14

Cited by 11 publications

References 20 publications

Overcoming the global despondency trap: strengthening corporate accountability in supply chains

Overcoming the global despondency trap: strengthening corporate accountability in supply chains

Post-democracy and institutionalized austerity in France: budgetary politics during François Hollande’s presidency

Departmental elections and the changing landscape of French politics

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