Abstract
Populism combines the following characteristics: a rejection of economic policies linked to globalization; a condemnation of political and economic elites perceived as allied, directly or indirectly, to globalization policies; a nationalist conception of the national interest; a mistrust of immigration, seen as a threat to identity; as for populism’s supporters, a rather popular sociological profile, and an electoral profile that tends toward the “hard right” (“droite dure), without ruling out bridges to the “hard left” (“gauche dure”). Having said this, I propose to defend three theses: populism is not the solution to the problems of the countries where it is developing, whether in France, the United States or elsewhere; it would be dangerous, however, to ignore the crises of which populism is the product; it is essential to take the measure of the problems that favor its emergence and to try to provide answers to them.
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Notes
The author thanks the two anonymous peer reviewers as well as Lawrin Green and Joseph Tao Coicaud-Zhang for their comments that have helped to improve the text.
Jean-Marc Coicaud, « Le populisme comme crise de légitimité démocratique – en référence à la France et aux Etats-Unis», in Chantal Delsol and Giulio de Ligio (eds.) Démocratie et liberté. Les peuples modernes à l’épreuve de la contradiction (Paris, Cerf, 2020).
The “Yellow Vests” Protests (“Mouvement des gilets jaunes”) were a series of grassroots weekly protests from November 2018 to March 2020. The movement was initially motivated by rising crude oil and fuel prices, a high cost of living and economic inequality. The movement argued that a disproportionate burden of taxation in France was falling on the working and middle classes, particularly in rural and peri-urban areas.
The self-help philosophy that exists in the United States makes it more difficult than in France to blame others for one’s lack of success.
Observatoire des inégalités, October 2022. This level of poverty is measured on the basis of the proportion of people whose primary income is lower to 60% of the average income of the population as a whole.
Emmanuel Macron, Révolution (Paris, XO Editions, 2016).
It should be noted that affirmative action has been far from perfect. It has been prone to benefit more students of color coming from well-off socio-economic background, from the US and abroad, than poor students of color.
The Committee proposed that the Department of Justice charge Trump with: inciting insurrection; obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to defraud the United States government; conspiracy to make a false statement; and witness tampering. See https://www.jan-6.com/doj-referrals.
See “The Biden-Harris Plan to Revitalize American Manufacturing and Secure Critical Supply Chains”, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/02/24/the-biden-harris-plan-to-revitalize-american-manufacturing-and-secure-critical-supply-chains-in-2022/.
Refer for example to his State of the Union on February 7, 2023, in which he announced a more extensive “Buy American” policy, requiring all construction materials used in federal infrastructure projects to be made in America with American-made lumber, glass, drywall, and fiber optic cables. The new provisions are meant to close loopholes existing in the Buy American Act of 1933. Also, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 – a landmark $ 369 billion health, climate and tax law – offers a tax credit for buyers of new electric vehicles (EVs) if materials for EV batteries are sourced in either the U.S. or one of its free trade agreement partners and if the EV is assembled in North America.
See “The Build Back Better Framework”, https://www.whitehouse.gov/build-back-better/.
“The Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record”, in The Economist, April 13th, 2023.
Ibid.
As of summer 2023, Donald Trump, who is denying any wrong doing, is also accused of illegal retention of classified documents and of lying to officials who sought to recover them, of trying illegally to overturn his defeat in the state of Georgia during the 2020 presidential campaign, of allegedly falsifying business records in connection with a hush-money payment to a porn star before the 2016 presidential election, of sexual abuse, and of fraud in the context of his family business.
Macron’s “new comer” status must not be overestimated. He may have been young when he was elected president but by then he was already a member of the establishment. Having studied at the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA), he had worked as a senior civil servant at the Inspectorate General of Finances, as an investment banker at Rothschild & Co and he had served as Deputy Secretary-General to President François Hollande from 2012 to 2014 and as the Minister of Economics, Industry and Digital Affairs under the same President from 2014 to 2016.
Formerly called “Front National” (“National Front”). The change of name took place in 2018.
Jean Peyrelevade, Réformer la France (Paris, Odile Jacob, 2023), p. 203.
Ibid., p. 203.
Ibid., p. 205.
Ibid. p. 204.
On this issue, Nicolas Dufourcq, La désindustialisation de la France: 1995–2015 (Paris, Odile Jacob, 2022).
Jean Peyrelevade, Réformer la France (op. cit.), p. 250.
Ibid., p. 204.
Ibid., p. 222.
Ibid., p. 222.
The Gini coefficient, also known as the Gini index or Gini ratio, is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income inequality, the wealth inequality, or the consumption inequality within a nation or a social group. A Gini coefficient of 0 reflects perfect equality, where all income or wealth values are the same, while a Gini coefficient of 1 reflects maximal inequality, for example a single individual having all the income while all others have none.
Jean Peyrelevade, Réformer la France (op. cit.), p. 222.
Philippe D’Iribarne refers to France as a “rank society” (“Société de rangs”), in L’étrangeté française (Paris, Seuil, 2006), p. 277.
Jean Peyrelevade, Réformer la France (op. cit.), p. 220.
It is unlikely that the situation will improve between now and the end of Macron’s second term in 2027.
People’s opposition to raising the retirement age is also an indication of a crisis of the work culture in France. Traditionally the management culture at work in France is quite vertical, with limited participation and consideration being given to workers. In addition, the 35-h workweek, a labor reform policy adopted in France in 2000, has played a role in minimizing the importance of work compared to leisure and private life. Finally, Covid has led people to reassess their priorities and their relationship to work.
According to the French Constitution, no one may carry out more than two consecutive terms of office as president (Article 6).
Macron is not the first French president to be narcissistic and egocentric. Francois Mitterrand, president from 19,811 to 1995, was in love with himself and his image. De Gaulle had a huge ego as well. But De Gaulle transcended this ego by successfully embodying the fact that he was working for something much bigger than him—France and its place in the world. His credibility and the respect that people had for him was based on this capacity to “embody” (“incarner”) this transcendence. Macron is perhaps both too self-centered and too insecure to truly take the measure of the presidency in the context of French history and have the humility that comes with this. The people in power around him have the same problem. See also Myriam Revault d’Allonnes who notes, in L’esprit du macronisme ou l’art de dévoyer les concepts (Paris, Seuil, 2021), that Macron’s idea of France as a “start-up nation” is more about the success of individuals than of the national community as a whole (pp. 49–51).
An expression pronounced by Emmanuel Macron in June 2017 in a speech in Paris.
Emmanuel Macron used this expression for the first time in a TV interview in October 2017.
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Coicaud, JM. Populism as a Crisis of Democratic Legitimacy: With Some References to France and the United States. Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-023-00398-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-023-00398-6