Campaigning for Ideas

In the early 19^th century, Europe saw the emergence of “utopian socialism”. Whereas in France utopian socialism is associated with thinkers such as Henri de Saint Simon, Charles Fourier and Pierre Leroux, in Great Britain it is attached to the figure of Robert Owen (1771-1858). The essay reassesses Robert Owen’s legacy as the father of British socialism and explores the nature of his intellectual legacy on British politics.

On March 2012, 25 EU Member States signed a new treaty to increase coordination between economic policies within the Union, something Germany in particular was keen on. Will this allow them to deal more efficiently with the financial crisis? According to Renaud Dehousse, there are reasons to doubt it.

Democracies must be able to promote economic innovation. In France, however, the media and the judicial system are not independent from the state and public policies are not evaluated. The economist Philippe Aghion proposes measures to stimulate the economy through democratic oversight. The lawyer William Bourdon explains why it is crucial that democracies implement more deterring sanctions.

In France, Islamic institutions follow the Republic’s rules, respect the legal and political system, but suffer from the fact that the principle of religious equality is contradicted by popular resistance to their presence in French society. To overcome this inconsistency, the American ethnographer John Bowen calls for a reinvention of the 1905 law on religious buildings and the adoption of “reasonable accommodations.”

It is neither simple nor cheap for French people to find housing, especially if they are young. This fuels social inequalities and recent programs, with their emphasis on homeownership, have made things worse. For sociologist Fanny Bugeja, making it possible for everyone to have, but not necessarily to own, a home should be a national priority.

If we want to adjust to the world the crisis has thrust us in, we will have to stop blaming unemployment on the “French Model.” For economist Philippe Askenazy, we need to shift from a vision of unemployment in terms of job losses, job flows, and business incentives, to the question: “Where does one need jobs in a modern society like France?”

In their discussion of crime and the best ways to curb it, French politicians have relied on a crude opposition between “the culture of results” and neighborhood policing, a doctrine whose American origins they seem to ignore: for sociologist Fabien Jobard, more than creating a new force, reforming the police implies better coordinating between central and local authorities.

A citizen, if informed, is active and attentive. In a transparent democracy, public authorities are truly accountable to their voters and citizens trust their leaders. In this interview, Dominique Cardon therefore advocates opening and making public data available online and encourages us to bet on their upright citizen use.

The indignados movement signals people’s current dissatisfaction as regards political representation. Though pessimistic as to the political outlets of that mobilization, French political scientist Loïc Blondiaux calls for a democratization of democracy and offers to combine experimental democratic forms to complement elections.