*** MICHEL THEYS: Jacques-René Rabier. Fonctionnaire-militant au service d’une… certaine idée de l’Europe. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (41 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 – fax: 3761727 – Email: brussels@peterlang.com et order@peterlang.com – Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). « Europe des cultures – Histoires vivantes » series, No. 15. 2017, 185 pp. €26, £22. ISBN 978-2-8076-0171-0.
Michel Theys no longer needs an introduction to the readers of Agence Europe: he was the deputy editor-in-chief for a long time and is now currently in charge of the editorials and an impressive number of in-depth reviews for this European Library publication. He is passionate about European news and could not be anything other than intrigued or indeed delighted by the action taken and the personality of Jacques-René Rabier, to the point of dedicating a whole book to this individual. This book is in fact the fruition of methodological research and lengthy interviews with his still very lively subject, despite the latter having reached a grand old age.
Certain destinies are fascinating in the way they combine at least two different elements: add together a mix of fortuitous danger and the power to take action made stronger by courage and ideals and there you have it. Rabier was born in Montmartre in 1919 and received training in both law and political science. He spent the war in a cavalry regiment then won a post at the Ministry for the National Economy. A first decisive meeting takes place with the economist François Perroux, who introduces him to the sphere of people around the Esprit journal and the philosopher Emmanuel Mounier. Strong friendships are born. The Commissariat General for the Modernisation and Equipment Plan is set up in 1946. On the recommendation of Perroux, he is given a meeting with Robert Marjolin, the deputy commissioner. During their talks, the big boss of the place, Jean Monnet, strides forth and observes him, Rabier is more than impressed. Shortly afterwards and following a number of unrelated circumstances, he becomes Head of Cabinet for Jean Monnet and a relationship of sustainable trust is formed.
The outlines of destiny are traced: Rabier attends the Schuman Declaration at the Salon de l’Horloge on 9 May 1950, from whence he follows Monnet to Luxembourg - L’Inspirateur (as he is nicknamed in French) has been appointed President of the Higher Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community. Michel Theys’ book does not exclusively focus on his subject’s brilliant personal trajectory but also brings to life the very origins of the Community adventure and is peppered with a number of delectable anecdotes and detailed depictions. Bonded together in allegiance to Monnet, a small team of pioneers is launched: their workload has no limits or the hours worked or the imagination, loyalty and adaptability required and which become their cardinal values. In 1953 Rabier is made responsible for the Monthly Report, Annual Report and relations with the press: the economist is transformed into a communicator and this passion will never leave him because it stems from the very determination demonstrated by Monnet himself, who, far from being obsessive about concealed procedures is extremely keen that the public at large is aware of the action taken by the ECSC and for whom the prerequisite is to “explain” it. The changes at the head of the ECSC (Mayer then Finet) do not make things change course: a real press service will develop and, moreover, information offices will take root in the different capital cities and provide a European window and subject matter for national opinion leaders.
When the institutions created by the Treaties of Rome are put in place in Brussels (1958), a legal service and the joint statistics service is immediately set up for the three Communities but it is not until the beginning of the 1960s that the idea, backed by MEPs, and for which Rabier has for a long time been calling, that a common press and news service based in Brussels is created. It will also be necessary to wait for the merger of the executives (1967) for the three institutions to renounce their individual spokespersons and for the budgetary and administrative management to be unified.
In the meantime, as head of information, Rabier goes all out to develop action address to a variety of different audiences: academics, farmers, women, young people, third countries, etc. but not without having, on a number of occasions, developed some quite stupendous strategies. Nonetheless, Gaullist France carries out an almost pathetic guerrilla war against this stateless Europe, which claims to be communicating with citizens. After becoming acting director-general and then assuming this role in its own right, under the Rey Commission, Rabier consolidates and expands the Commission’s information services until he is made to “jump” in 1973, a victim of the first enlargement. Retired at 54? Yes, but it is proposed that he also becomes a Special Adviser but to do what? The European Parliament would like, quite rightly, a permanent study carried out of European public opinion. Rabier pulls up his sleeves and with just one secretary and a tiny budget, he creates the Eurobarometer, whose credibility, usefulness and longevity can never been denied. This survey enthusiast does not hand over things until 1987 but only after having ensured his succession.. Bye bye Rabier? Not completely because for another five years he provides advice to the Directorate General Health on what lessons should be drawn from the surveys on subjects such as diet, alcohol consumption and smoking, the obesity of Europeans etc. all for the common good, as usual!
The book ends with a beautiful chapter on the man as an individual, his commitment to the fight against poverty, inspired by his socially demanding interpretation of Christianity, his struggles to maintain European symbols, his erudition with regard to the myth of Europe’s abduction. This is a pleasant read, notwithstanding its meticulous research and the fact that it is well argued and manages to avoid descending into a hagiographic account. The exemplary value of the individual portrayed is in fact testimony to this. Younger generations should be allowed to discover this personality, at least as long as the older generations remain motivated enough.. Renaud Denuit
*** ALEXANDROS SCHISMENOS, NIKOS IOANNOU: La fin de la politique nationale. Editions Exarchia (68 rue Zoodochou Pigis, GR-10681 Athens. Tel: (30) 6955493432 – Email: exarchiapress@gmail.com – Internet: http://www.exarchiapress.gr ). 2016, 176 pp. €10. ISBN 978-618-5128-13-5.
The transformation of the mythical and “timeless” nationstate, in historic terms, is a recent phenomenon but it is also a global phenomenon that was particularly borne out during the past few decades of the 20th century. It changed from purporting to play an historic role as the privileged guardian of national interests and the partner of capitalist enterprise to gradually become that of a state enterprise owing to the fact that the neoliberal offensive undermined the weak political redistribution of the welfare state by promoting strong investment policies that supported the commercialisation of both life and work. The political philosopher, Alexandros Schismenos and Nikos Ioannou, editorial writer at the Babylon magazine argue in this book that the nationstate has been transformed into a precarious enterprise because it is unable to recover any social legitimacy. Its narrow dependency on the global economy and the international financial system effectively prevent it from reclaiming the image it originally had, namely that of an actor capable of guaranteeing national independence and sovereignty. Therefore, any possibility of providing it with a national policy worthy of the name is impossible. Given this observation, the two authors suggest that that the different social forces come to the forefront to ensure that common goods are no longer threatened by privatisation and that the state reclaims is role as protector in the broad social field. This implies the need for a generalised mobilisation around the project of direct democracy. (AKa)
*** KLAUS BACHMANN, JENS GIESEKE (Editors): The Silent Majority in Communist and Post-Communist States. Opinion Polling in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Peter Lang (42-50 Eschborner Landstraße, D-60489 Francfort. Tel: (49-69) 780700 – fax: 78070550 – Email: frankfurt@peterlang.com – Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2016, 238 pp. €56, £45, $72.95. ISBN 978-3-631-66668-5.
Opinion polls are not the exclusive preserve of western democracies. The academic experts contributing to this publication testify to this fact by examining the way in which these instruments have been used in communist and post communist countries. In this connection they also examine countries such as Belarus, which has not experienced any evolution in its own right, for example, as well as Poland and the former Yugoslavia. In their introduction, Klaus Bachmann (professor in political science at the University of Social and Human Sciences in Warsaw) and Jens Gieseke (Head of the “Communism and Society” Department” at the Potsdam Centre for Contemporary History) point out that it is because they ignored what opinion polls told them (as well as macro-economic data) on the resulting state of mind, that the Solidarnosc movement grew in Poland. In this connection, it is interesting to point out that one of the chapters is written by a former confidante of General Jaruzelski. Stanislaw Kwiatkowski was put in charge of a new Institute for polls that was only allowed to provide good news to the Polish authorities at the time. The authors provide a comprehensive account of opinion polls carried out in different countries that do not allow for pluralism and show the ramifications, limits, main trends and critical areas exclusive to each of the countries analysed. These include Poland and the former East Germany, as well as the Czech Republic, the former Yugoslavia, with particular emphasis on Serbia, not to mention the singular case of Alexander Lukashenko’s Belarus. In many of these countries, opinion polls have been destroyed by communist leaders but they did, nonetheless, enable them to discreetly take the pulse of public opinion so that they could put into place measures that help them keep control of the situation at different times. (PBo)
*** GIORGOS MARGARITIS: Il était un petit navire... Notes historiques et politiques pour temps de crise. Editions Kapsimi (55-57 rue Zoodochou Pigis, GR-10681 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3813838 – fax: 3839713 – Email: info@kapsimi.gr – Internet: http://www.kapsimi.gr ). 2016, 214 pp. €12. ISBN 978-618-5156-23-7.
This book contains a small anthology of the texts published since the high point of the crisis that has affected Greece so brutally over the past few years and in which Greek citizens are still reeling from. The majority of these short accounts have been published in the “Journalists’ Journal” and in other newspapers but some of them are now being released to the public for the first time. They are mainly political in the sense that they refer to the political situation during the crisis and focus on the social responses, pressure and the bottlenecks within the system that this unprecedented crisis has caused. Giorgos Margaritis is a writer and is currently teaching modern history at the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Aristotle in Salonica. This post follows a position he held for a long time at the University of Crete (1985-2004). He is also, obviously, an historian, which means that his comments on the contemporary political situation very often begin with references to similar situations in other eras. This evidently justifies the subtitle chosen for this book. (AKa)
*** ANDREAS PANTAZOPOULOS: Le national-populisme ou ethno-nationalisme de la gauche. De l'opposition au pouvoir. Editions Epikentro (9 rue Kamvounion, GR-54621 Salonika. Tel: (30-231) 0256146 – fax: 0256148 – Internet: http://www.epikentro.gr ). 2016, 272 pp. €12. ISBN 978-960-458709-4.
Written over the past three years, the texts contained in this book all share a major theme – “national populism” or “ethno- nationalism”. These themes are part of an ideological and political current that has particularly increased over the past few years. Andreas Pantazopoulos is a professor of political sciences at the University of Aristotle in Salonica. In his book, he analyses the increasing power, strategies and targets from 2013 to the present day. How can this evolution in the left in Greece be interpreted? What are the ideological and political relations between the populist radicalism of the Greek left and similar international experiences, such as Podemos, for example? Are the promises made by Syriza “lies” or “illusions”? Will the party of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras be transformed into a social democratic party? Finally and more importantly, what is the “essence” of the ethno-nationalism of the left? These are all the different questions to which the author seeks to provide answers, as he did in a previous book covering the period 2008—2013. This time he provides a detailed examination of the developments and transformations in this political phenomenon, ranging from its opposition to gaining power in January 2015. He also scrutinises the bizarre coalition between Syriza and Anel, a radical and ultranationalist right wing political party that is at the opposite end of the political spectrum to the former. The complexity of the phenomenon is deftly brought to light, as is the priority placed on the “effective defence of the principles of liberal representative democracy” and which is effectively the sworn enemy of ethno- nationalism but also its favourite terrain in which to work. (AKa)
*** STATHIS KALIVAS: Où sommes-nous et où allons-nous ? Courir à travers la crise (2009-2016) en regardant vers l'avenir. Editions Metaixmio (118 rue Ippokratous, GR-11472 Athens. Tel: (30-211) 3003500 – fax: 3003562 – Email: metaixmio@metaixmio.gr – Internet: http://www.metaixmio.gr ). 2016, 472 pp. €18.80. ISBN 978-618-03-0780-1.
Why did such a crisis break out in Greece and why has it been so acute and protracted? What are the reasons why Greece responded in the way that it did? More importantly, is it possible that something positive will come out of this dramatic historical juncture? The different documentation drawn on in this book by Stathis Kalivas, professor of political sciences at the University of Yale, compose a mosaic that goes beyond the most recent information on the question to reveal an entire range of concerns affecting the present and, above all, the future of Greece. He therefore hopes to a halt will be called on the past seven years of domination by ludicrous and crazed ideas that make it impossible to begin to correct the mistakes made by Greek society and which have plunged the country into a lasting quagmire. The author, however, refuses to give in to pessimism and believes that the Greeks have a lot of advantages but that they just need to “identify them and use them in the right way”. (AKa)