*** NICOLAS GUILLET, NADA AFIOUNI (Editors): Les tentatives de banalisation de l’extrême droite en Europe. Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles (26 av. Paul Héger, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 6503799 – fax: 6503794 – Email: editions@ulb.ac.be – Internet: http://www.editions-universite-bruxelles.be ). "Science politique" series. 2016, 184 pp. €18. ISBN 978-2-8004-1604-5.
Everything would suggest that the extreme right is becoming a normal part of the European political landscape. This book stems from a study day organised at the Université du Havre more than four years ago (things have not exactly improved since then…). Eleven researchers from a variety of different scientific backgrounds contribute to it and seek to verify this phenomenon by providing a cross section of different methodologies. In their introduction, Nicolas Guillet and Nada Afiouni put forward a joint thesis in light of the prevailing situation in France and United Kingdom, two former colonial powers, as well as in Switzerland, where the extreme right is a sham, “although some people attempt to change the façade, the movement of the far right are not far removed from their intrinsic characteristics and their ideas are making progress insofar as they impregnate all or some of the other political groups and social actors”.
The first part of the book focuses on the trajectories of the normalisation process involving the far right in France. Two historians, Kevin Passmore from the United Kingdom (University of Cardiff) and Todd Shepard from the US (University John Hopkins in Baltimore) demonstrate the porosity of ideas, values and individuals on the basis of different political, social and historical circumstances amongst the traditional right and extreme right. The former looks at the example of the Croix-de-Feu groups in this context and the latter analyses how May 1968 paradoxically conferred a “new centrality” on anti-Arab xenophobia. The sociologist Daniel Bizeul (Université d’Angers) provides a number of nuanced responses to the question of whether the banalisation of the FN is testimony to a society that is more accepting of someone like Jean-Marie Le Pen on mass scale, as well as the “normalisation of the party” or a “accommodation on the part of the FN with French society”. The legal expert, Nicolas Guillet, subsequently illustrate how French law makes any kind of normalisation of the extreme right impossible. The Political scientist André Dézé (Université de Montpellier) shows how the FN of Marine Le Pen is not really any different to that of her father, although it is true that it “does not currently have any motive for changing or demonising itself without running the risk of losing its radical image”.
The second part of the book focuses on the active mechanisms of banalisation in Switzerland and United Kingdom. Two linguistics experts therefore analyse the discursive strategies of normalisation of the Democratic Union of the Centre headed by Christoph Blocher and their colleague, Philippe Gottraux (Université de Lausanne) highlights the porosity of extremist language among other professionals in public speeches in the political, media and other fields. Based on a typical case involving the referendum on the automatic expulsion of foreign criminals, he argues that these “annunciators” have contributed to the normalisation of far right speech either through their “support” or by their “warnings”. The United Kingdom is analysed in light of the rise in power of the British National Party and, above all, the United Kingdom Independence Party over the past 10 years. Kevin Braouezec explains that this has no so much been the result of a process of banalisation than a strategy based on four different areas: the search for respectability; localism; the media environment and the emergence of a “charismatic leader”.
Professor Olivier Esteves (civilisation of English speaking countries at the Université Lille III) argues that this is not so much the racist ideas of the far right that are becoming normalised in the United Kingdom than the idea that a threatened social group exists of “poor whites” and an image of “white people being at the receiving end of aggressors and aggressive minorities”. This obviously has a certain resonance with those who voted for Donald Trump in the United States of America.
As part of a conclusion, the political scientist, Nonna Mayer (Sciences Po Paris) looks at the attitude adopted by “the democracies of Western Europe faced with the extreme right”. In this political scientist’s view, the expansion of the far right over recent years can be seen as a “response to globalisation and European integration” from those losing out from this development and who are, “small businesses and unskilled workers who are afraid of the opening up of the borders and competition from emerging economies – because the parties of the far right say that they are involved in the defence against a triple threat that is on the one hand economic (immigrants taking our jobs) cultural (they do not conform to our values and threaten our identity) and political (globalisation threatens the sovereignty of our nationstate)”. The fear cause by the Islamisists and the multifaceted crisis that blew up in 2008 have obviously “increased the rejection of ‘the other’ and created a scapegoat out of immigrants and minorities” at the same time that this context has revealed “an impotence on the part of the political parties to resolve these problems” and consequently helps nourish populist and anti-elitist discourse. She then goes on to analyse the strategies developed by the democratic parties to counter the far right. Some of them refuse any relationship with these parties according to a variety of different formula, whilst others say that there must be an “engagement” based on the example of what Nicolas Sarkozy attempted in 2007 and is still trying to do today by “imitating them, recuperating their main themes occupying their political terrain in the hope of recuperating their voters”. Judging by the evidence, “there is no miracle remedy” to tackle “the populist, Eurosceptic and exclusionary far right” which is now “well and truly anchored in the European political landscape”. Nonna Mayer ultimately points out that in light of the trajectory of Podemos in Spain and Syriza in Greece, the far right can in fact be contained “when their adversaries place themselves on the political terrain and not on the level of moral indignation and when they reject the themes of security and anti-immigration and bring a different voice and new ideas”. Michel Theys
*** DOMINIQUE ANDOLFATTO, ALEXANDRA GOUJON (Editors): Les partis politiques, ateliers de la démocratie. Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles (see address attached). "Science politique" series. 2016, 245 pp. €22. ISBN 978-2-8004-1606-9.
Many people agree that the political parties are in crisis and even contribute to the increased precariousness of society. The studies contained in this publication involve political scientists analysing the political process. They also dissect and scrutinise the interaction existing between political parties and democracy and on this starting point, look at how the political actors themselves interpret and see this interaction. In the first part they analyse the strategies developed by the parties to regain legitimacy amongst citizens and adapt themselves to the new challenges relating to the power of public opinion in the older democracies. Two authors therefore look at the first round of elections in France and the United Kingdom and argue that this can initially appear as a strength for the winning candidate, but can ultimately lead to a lower level of activism in the parties because they are not immune to demagogic behaviour among some of their own candidates. Similarly, the use of the Internet cannot provide a benchmark for the significant expansion in the militant base of the parties either. Analysis is also made of the sharing of the different parties’ programmes, with think tanks such as Terra Nova, for example, and their feminisation, which, in India, has strong correlations with dynastic practices. The second part focuses on the irregularities arising from the political power game and the changes within it. After focusing on the political system in the US and, as revealed in the most recent presidential election and the increasing polarisation appearing there, together with extremist currents, three contributions show that this political radicalisation is also a European phenomenon. The question of far right extremist parties in Scandinavia is also studied and which are steadily being integrated into the political system by those who sometimes use proposals claiming that this can help to improve democracy. The Left Front in France is also examined and which has endeavoured to confront the difficulties to create a politically united force, in spite of its heterogeneity. Finally, the influence of state financial donations on the French political landscape is also explored. In the final part of the book, the way in which the political systems are affected by transformations in contemporary democracies, is studied, particularly in light of the Italian example with Berlusconi’s Forza
Italia and the subsequent long-term shattering of the traditional political system that sort of success of the Five-Star Movement 20 years later. Two chapters focus on the complex relationship between democratisation and the multi-party system in light of the situation prevailing in Tunisia and Russia. Professor Dominique Andolfatto (Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté) examines the slow introduction of a political system in the context of the European Union. By examining this slow development and attempts of innovation relating to the construction of transnational parties, he shows that the system still remains “largely cut off from citizens” and the “Euro-parties” remain, for the most part, “the business of professionals involved in European Parliament politics”. (MT)
*** YANNIS MANIATIS: Les réformes et le patriotisme progressif. Editions Papazisi (2 rue Nikitara, GR-10678 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3822496 – fax: 3809020 – Email: papazisi@otenet.gr – Internet: http://www.papazisi.gr ). 2016, 483 pp. €28. ISBN 978-960-02-3238-7.
The agronomist engineer and University of Piraeus Professor, Yannis Maniatis experienced the most serious crisis in Greece, as well as the five critical years of the Memoranda, in a role in which he exercised responsibility for key sectors under the Department of the Environment, Energy and Climate Change. In this book, he attempts to provide a methodological explanation of the series of reforms implemented in all the different areas of economic, political and social life, as well as the efforts made to restore national confidence and institutional balance whilst under the scrutiny of the European and international institutions. The current nature of national independence as experienced in the shape of a country that must pay back in its debts without going under, lays at the heart of this book. The writer explains that the public interest is not the property of the state because the state-owned monopolies are not able to function efficiently. Neither is it the production of wealth through a market hamstrung by strict rules and regulatory bodies. In this context, he attempts to define what modern and progressive Greek patriotism should be, namely, open and cosmopolitan, free from any overburdening European framework, so that it is able to take advantage of all the benefits resulting from the country’s geopolitical position that works on behalf of regional cooperation, which unquestionably supports the global priorities for tackling climate change, reducing world poverty and tacking the challenges created by migration. In his eyes “progressive patriotism” will help deal with the crucial questions relating to inter-generational solidarity in the social arena, as well as energy and environmental challenges. He calls for: i) implementation of efficient energy economy measures that can help increase GDP by 4% up until 2030; ii) spending on energy efficiency can help increase job creation by 20%, whilst improving GDP; iii) investing in coal plants generate around 30,000 jobs or even 100,000 if the energy efficiency applications were applied to them. According to the author, progressive patriotism would help take the country into a new era of sustainable and decentralised development based on the principles of the circular economy and green information technology, whilst promoting flexibility and social justice at same time. He therefore makes a heartfelt appeal for a new social contract in this sense. (AKa)
*** MARINA KAKEPAKI, YANNIS KARAYANNIS (Editors): La représentation politique en Grèce contemporaine. Les caractéristiques et le profil des membres du parlement grec, 1996-2015. Editions Papazisi (2 rue Nikitara, GR-10678 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3822496 – fax: 3809020 – Email: papazisi@otenet.gr – Internet: http://www.papazisi.gr ). 2016, 230 pp. €14. ISBN 978-960-02-3216-5.
The texts in this volume use data provided by members of the Greek parliament and gathered together during the So.Da.Map research programme. This project sought to provide information about the socio-demographic characteristics of the political experience of the delegates at the Vouli during the eight elections held between 1996 and January 2015. Over this 20-year period, political representatives emerged from different origins and with different goals. Some of them managed to get to the fore of the political scene, whilst others were forgotten as quickly shooting stars and some are still suffering the stigma of the lines adopted in the ethical and moral arena. The researchers contributing to this publication are professors in social sciences and are still working at the National Social Research Centre. The initial starting point is that all of them in one way of another have been national representatives or represents its of powerful groups within the democratic Parliamentary system. Access to the following documents (http://www.socioscope.gr ), will enable all researchers across the board to provide responses to a number of other questions and subsequently better understand the political system and the way democracy works in Greece. (AKa)
*** ANASTASIOS-IOANNIS METAXAS (Editor): La science politique, enquête interdisciplinaire et transversale sur le fonctionnement de la politique. Les institutions politiques : les structures et les fonctions (Vol 5). Editions Sideris (116 rue Solonos, GR-10681 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3833434 – fax: 3832294 – Email: contact@isideris.gr). 2016, 572 p., €25. ISBN 978-960-08-0717-2.
This fifth volume of a 10-part study edited by Anastasios Metaxas, and emeritus professor at the University of Athens and the Peloponnese involves observations from 28 academic specialists and get to grips with the subject of the political institutions. With a language that is to all intents and purposes a specialised one, they tackle subjects such as the organic undertakings responsible for certifying requests for translating legislative, executive and legal provisions. Other formal and informal measures are also duly examined. (AKa)