Table Of ContentGovernment through Culture and the Contemporary
French Right
FrenchPolitics,SocietyandCulture
GeneralEditor:JocelynEvans,ProfessorofPolitics,UniversityofLeeds,UK.
France has always fascinated outside observers. Now, the country is undergoing a period
of profound transformation. France is faced with a rapidly changing international and
Europeanenvironmentanditishavingtorethinksomeofitsmostbasicsocial,political
andeconomicorthodoxies.Aselsewhere,thereispressuretoconform.Andyet,whileFrance
isrespondinginwaysthatarenodoubtfamiliartopeopleinotherEuropeancountries,itis
alsomanagingtomaintainelementsofitslong-standingdistinctiveness.Overall,itremains
aplacethatisnotexactlycommelesautres.
ThisnewseriesexaminesallaspectsofFrenchpolitics,societyandculture.Insodoingit
focusesonthechangingnatureoftheFrenchsystemaswellastheestablishedpatternsof
political,socialandculturallife.Contributorstotheseriesareencouragedtopresentnew
andinnovativeargumentssothattheinformedreadercanlearnandunderstandmoreabout
oneofthemostbeguilingandcompellingofallEuropeancountries.
Titlesinclude:
JeremyAhearne
GOVERNMENTTHROUGHCULTUREANDTHECONTEMPORARYFRENCHRIGHT
DavidS.BellandJohnGaffney(editors)
THEPRESIDENTSOFTHEFRENCHFIFTHREPUBLIC
JocelynEvansandGillesIvaldi
THE2012FRENCHPRESIDENTIALELECTIONS
TheInevitableAlternative
JohnGaffney
POLITICALLEADERSHIPINFRANCE
FromCharlesdeGaulletoNicolasSarkozy
ImogenLong
WOMENINTELLECTUALSINPOST-68FRANCE
PetitionsandPolemics
GinoG.Raymond(editor)
THESARKOZYPRESIDENCY
BreakingtheMould?
Forthcomingtitlesinclude:
DavidS.BellandByronCriddle
EXCEPTIONALSOCIALISTS
TheCaseoftheFrenchSocialistParty
FrenchPolitics,SocietyandCulture
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Government through
Culture and the
Contemporary French
Right
Jeremy Ahearne
CentreforCulturalPolicyStudies,UniversityofWarwick,UK
©JeremyAhearne2014
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-29098-4
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Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Introduction 1
1 ReforgingSymbols:TheNewLaicity 10
2 Transmission:TheCollègeandtheSocleCommun 37
3 GovernmentthroughTelevision:PolicyandPerformance 63
4 Memory:HistoryandNationalIdentity 90
5 OutwardProjection:FranceintheWorld 121
Conclusion 152
Notes 162
Bibliography 167
Index 180
v
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to students and colleagues in the Department of French
Studies and the Centre for Cultural Policy Studies at the University
of Warwick (particularly the Centre’s founder, Oliver Bennett) for pro-
viding a supportive teaching and research environment in which to
developtheideascontainedinthisbook.IwouldliketothankPalgrave’s
anonymous reviewer for valuable feedback and suggestions. As ever,
Iamgratefultomyfamilyforwarmth,supportandperspective.
Alltranslationsunlessotherwiseindicatedaremyown.
Part of Chapter 1 is adapted from Jeremy Ahearne, Laïcité: a paral-
lel French cultural policy (2002–2007), French Cultural Studies, 25(3/4),
2014.
vi
Introduction
ThisbookisaboutgovernmentalpoliciesforshapingcultureinFrance
between 2002 and 2012. It understands culture as denoting embodied
clusters of attitudes, values and references, and it looks at policies as
institutionalizedcoursesofactionforactinguponthese,payingpartic-
ularattentiontothesymbolicanddiscursivemeansdeployed.Thisis,of
course,justoneapproachamongmanytogovernmentalactivity,butit
shouldnotbe construedas simply marginal to‘harder’accounts based
on socio-economic and geo-politicalrelations of force. As Gramsci and
many others since have noted, such relations of force are not directly
perceived but mediated through interpretation (Gramsci & Forgacs,
2000, p. 46). The battles to impose the most persuasive or resonant
interpretativeframesareculturalbattles.
The book is not directly about explicit ‘cultural policy’ (la politique
culturelle) insofar as this is taken as a synonym for arts policy, or as
describingpolicyconductedthroughadedicatedministry(intheFrench
casetheMinistèredelaCultureetdelaCommunication).Certainly,aspects
ofthisministry’sworkwillfigureindifferentchapters(notablyitsmedia
brief, or its support for presidential grands projets). However, the arts
as such in France during the period in question could not function as
a significant tool for cultural government for at least two underlying
reasons.Firstly,asVincentDuboishasshown,republicangovernments
sincethelatenineteenthcenturyhavegenerallybeenpositionedas‘ille-
gitimate’ when it comes to direct prescription of artistic production
(Dubois, 1999). Much debate has certainly swirled around the finan-
cial extent and generic scope of their support or otherwise for artistic
production, but the norm has been that direct influence over artistic
work has been beyond the bounds of legitimate governmental author-
ity.Ofcourse,inpractice,thelinebetweensupportandprescriptionhas
1
2 GovernmentthroughCultureandtheContemporaryFrenchRight
notbeenclear-cut.However,thenotionthattheartisticfieldshould be
autonomous(Bourdieu,1996)hasfunctionedasapowerfullyconstrain-
ingnormativereferencetodiscourageanydirectpoliticalenrolmentof
theartsthroughpolicy.Thiswasevenmoresothecaseduringtheperiod
ofright-winggovernmentunderconsiderationinsofarastheinveterate
politicaltropismoftheartisticfieldinpost-warFrancehasconsistently
inclinedittotheleft.
Secondly,despiteexternalperceptions,lapolitiqueculturelleinFrance
does not have the prominence that it once did. Even without overt
artistic prescription, de Gaulle could use the novel Ministry for Cul-
tural Affairs in the 1960s under the iconic Malraux to give ‘profile’ to
hisgovernmentandhispoliciesofnationalgrandeur(Lebovics,1999).
Mitterrand could use the flamboyant Lang in the 1980s to display the
moderninclusivenessofhissocialistgovernmentanddistractfromless
euphorianteconomiccompromises(Debray,1993;Looseley,1995).Sea-
soned arts policy watchers have noted, however, that this sector of
governmental activity scarcely figured as a significant issue in either
the 2002 or 2007 presidential and legislative elections (Looseley, 2013;
Poirrier,2004).
If we want to understand the processes of effective ‘government
through culture’ in the period under consideration, we must look not
just at explicit cultural policies, where these are pertinent, but also at
therangeof‘implicit’culturalpolicies(Ahearne,2009).BythisImean
thosepolicieswhichmaynotbeprojectedinconsistentlyculturalterms,
andmaynotbeattachedtoadedicatedMinistryofCulture,butwhich
nonetheless are designed to work in discursive and symbolic mode on
thevalues,normsandreflexreferencesofatargetpopulation.Suchpoli-
ciesassumedahighdegreeofprominenceduringtheperiodinquestion.
Thismayinitiallysurprisereaders,giventhereputationofthepolitical
rightforapreoccupationwithhardeconomicratherthan‘airy’cultural
affairs. However, it brings us on to territory strikingly familiar to that
chartedthreedecadesagobyStuartHall,whoanalysedtheembedding
of Thatcherism not as a feat of economic pedagogy but as a ‘cultural’
landslide remodelling the ‘common sense’ of the nation (Hall, 1988).
Artspolicymayhavehadawalk-onpartintheseanalyses,butthekey
channels of this programme lay elsewhere (education policy, represen-
tations of individualized ethics and the State, the generation of ‘moral
panics’,Englishnationalismandsoforth).
TheperiodofFrenchhistoryaddressedinthisbook(2002–2012)bears
some prima facie structural similarities with the period of British his-
tory analysed by Hall (the mid-1970s to late 1980s), at least as regards
Introduction 3
questionsofculturalhegemony.Inbothcases,wearedealingnotwith
a simple left–right contest. Instead, there are at least three principal
blocsinplay:adividedand/orconcussedleft(theBritishLabourParty,
the French Socialist Party), an older consensus-seeking right subject to
entropy (Heath, Chirac) and a ‘new’ right defined by its rupture with
bothleftandtraditionalright(Thatcher,Sarkozy).Thisheuristictripar-
titeparallelwillallowustointroducethegeneralpoliticalframeworkin
Francefortheperiod,whilealsohelpingustopointupfurtherstructur-
ingfeaturesthatweredistinctivetoFranceandhavenoparallelinHall’s
analyses.
The French left was rendered concussed by its failure to go beyond
eventhefirstroundofthe2002presidentialelections,astunningresult
that had scarcely been anticipated by anyone. Its candidate and ‘natu-
ralleader’,LionelJospin,hadcohabitedasprimeministerwithPresident
Chiracforthepreviousfiveyears,andhademergedwithareputationfor
competenceandfairnessrelativelyintactfortheholderofthisexposed
position in French political life. Retrospective analysis suggested that
he had been sunk by at least three principal factors. Firstly, his rather
rigid and austere manner exuded insufficient warmth when it came to
mediaperformance(apoorlycontrolledpersonalanimusagainstChirac
exacerbated this impression). Secondly, he was left exposed when law
andorderbecametheprincipalissueofthecampaign(partlyduetoan
intrinsic dynamic in the media and partly due to the vociferous pres-
ence of an established far right in the French political field). Thirdly,
Jospin suffered badly from the fragmentation of the left vote among
a scatter of smaller radical parties (partly the reflection of a distinc-
tive hegemonic battle within the French left and partly the result of
theingrainedtendencyofFrenchvoterstousethefirstroundofpresi-
dential elections as a protest or expressive outlet). There followed, at a
nationallevel,aprotractedperiodofinternecinestruggleforleadership
ofthesocialistparty.Theircandidatein2007,SégolèneRoyal,mounted
a creditable campaign and did make it through to the second round
against Nicolas Sarkozy. She remained, however, a very divisive figure
within the party, and found herself isolated during the ensuing round
ofprotractedleadershipconflict.
To an outside observer, Chirac, the representative of the traditional
Gaullist right, might have seemed to enjoy unprecedented legitimacy
after his victory in the second round of the 2002 presidential elec-
tions.His81%majoritywas,however,deceptive,beingtheresultsimply
of a skewed choice presented to the electorate between a right and a
far-right candidate. Not only had his performance in the first round
