Suchergebnisse

France, Social Capital and Political Activism deals with the theme of political participation in France, focusing on conventional and unconventional forms of political activism over the last three decades. The French model of political activism supports the interpretation that countries do not necessarily need to focus on the development of social capital (that is the involvement in groups and associations as the basis for political engagement) to increase people's political involvement and consequently the quality of their participatory democracies. The French style of action has become a source of inspiration for other countries trying to increase political involvement, but lacking the attendant levels of social capital.

The 2008 European recession has been linked to higher political unconventionality across countries in recent studies. Research on the impact of the economic downturn on people's engagement in protest has focused on data mostly from 2008 to 2012. Recent findings have supported primarily a relative deprivation theory based explanation of why Europeans choose to participate in street marches, suggesting a change has taken place in the way the economy affects political contention. This article assesses the relationship between the economy and protest in 2014, six years after the crisis took place, a long enough period for countries to have improved their economic situation and for people's interpretations of the economy to be more optimistic. Does the economy still matter to explain protest if it is not as salient any longer? This research employs data for 13 European Union member states from the 2008 and 2014 European Social Survey to test the importance of national level objective economic indicators as well as individual level evaluations of financial wellbeing to study the link between confrontational activism and economic variables. Some of the findings suggest a limited relevance of the economy in the explanation of protest, for objective economic variables, yet a more salient role for personal interpretations of economic wellbeing. Yet, a combination of relative deprivation and resources theories is needed to understand why citizens choose protest in light of the economic situation. The link between the economy and confrontational activism in 2008 and 2014 looks in the end very similar, dismissing any serious long term change in the relationship.

The Élysée Treaty turned fifty on 22 January 2013—signed in 1963between France and Germany, under the watchful eyes of French PresidentCharles de Gaulle and West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.Although celebrated every decade, this particular anniversary comes at acrucial time in the countries' bilateral relationship. After a few tumultuousyears of disagreement and distance between Paris and Berlin over seriouseconomic and foreign policy issues, German Chancellor Angela Merkeland French President François Hollande have seized the opportunity ofthe year-long anniversary calendar to work on political rapprochement, inthe spirit of one of the original purposes of the Treaty itself.

In 2013 France and Germany will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Élysée Treaty, signed by the two countries to create a close collaboration in the interest of peace and prosperity. Over the course of five decades, different couples of French Presidents and German Chancellors have dealt with the Paris-Berlin relationship in slightly different ways, some with more success than others. Despite the many changes in the European context and to the balance in the alliance between France and Germany, the initial motivation and meaning of the treaty remains astonishingly valid today, especially in light of its positive contribution to European integration. Even with many possible factors weakening the two countries' core relations, the Franco-German duo retains its historically dominant influence in successful European governance, as the recent Merkozy situation showed.