This apathy is the intended effect of decades of centralisation of power, removing meaningful democratic control from the hands of citizens and funnelling it upwards to bureaucrats to insulate the ‘direction of travel’ from public feedback/intervention.
This isn’t just a problem in France, it’s a major issue all across the west. The voters do indeed grasp that no matter how they vote they will be served the Davos agenda, even if they cannot articulate that elegantly. The power structures have grown to be massive, opaque, even oppressive. Most of all they are unresponsive.
Why vote, when it makes no difference? …when no meaningful change will take place based on the vote?
The only way Marine Le Pen was able to make the runoff was stripping off her most anti-EU, anti-immigrant positions and sentiments. Are French citizens really tired of rule by remote, unaccountable elites? The 2017 result and resulting change in Le Pen implies not.
Regardless, Sunday will be fascinating to watch, especially for those of us in America who don’t have to live with the consequences. Should Le Pen actually win (I know, highly unlikely, but so was Donald Trump) the man who will celebrate the most will be Victor Orban. He’s been praying for a fellow, right-wing government in a major EU state for a while.
Bennie History
2 years ago
I like to call the current political landscape that people in Western societies live in the “Brutalist Democracy” structure.
Just like brutalist architecture which is designed to make the average individual feel small – Western democracies have increasingly become unresponsive, unchanging, and feel increasingly distant to the average voter.
Democracy has shifted from the will of the voters to the interests of life-long bureaucrats, media conglomerates, big tech bigwigs, and elitists from gated communities who continually wage this war of information to make voters from these countries feel divided from one another.
Brutalist architecture often makes buildings feel larger than they are through their use of building materials as the visual focus. No wonder voters are becoming disinterested in participating in a system they feel is beyond their control.
If any change comes to the system it will have to come from outside of it. The dismantling of institutions that were once revered, but have now become stagnant blights, is the only solution to a broken system. Every voter knows there is a problem, but no one knows how to fix it.
In the end the honest truth is that they don’t want us to know how to fix it in the first place.
We actually live under an oxymoron: “liberal democracy”. The idea that these two coexist is absurd.
If you are a committed liberal (seek to liberate people from constraints), then you must support undemocratic means, since voters may want to do illiberal things. Think Hungary’s children’s LGBT law, or slavery in the United States — both illiberal but broadly supported by their citizens.
If you are a committed democrat (the will of the people must prevail), you must accept some illiberal outcomes.
We are living through the end of 60 year reign of the “liberals” over the “democrats” in this unstable, shotgun wedding that we call “liberal democracy”. The rise of the so-called “populists” (like Le Pen) is simply the “democrats” of that equation biting back.
I was going to vote for The Indecisive Party, but just wasn’t sure… so I looked at the apathy party… but could not be bothered…
Simon Denis
2 years ago
Whichever candidate wins – and it’s most probably Macron – let’s hope the electorate presents them with a powerful, united national assembly capable of withstanding the agenda.
Dream on……here the parliamentary election is called “ the 3 rd round “ ……or day of reckoning for people like Melanchon or the defeated socialists and republicans.
As to Le Pen, do not forget her party has only……2 seats in parliament and supposing she wins, the shock will so immense that I really doubt she would get the majority in parliament.
Chirac is the one who torpedoed the pretty wise system we had. 7 years term for the president, long enough to implement his program and a 5 years term for parliament to confirm him or shut him up.Very similar to the US mid term election.
We need to go back to this with a one term only 7 years for the president.
Maybe the US can live with such a short term for president, France, as volatile and fickle as it is, clearly needs more time…..but one term only.
Last edited 2 years ago by Bruno Lucy
Peter Francis
2 years ago
Many thanks to François Valentin for this piece. French politics seem more interesting than UK politics, largely due to France’s talented political commentators. I have one quibble. You state that “More than in any other European country, the French President commands immense executive power.”. Yet later you say that Macron “soon discovered that he lacked a mandate for much of his governing agenda.” Doesn’t the extent of the French president’s power hinge on the outcome of the Assemblée nationale elections in June? And also, of course, on level of resentment that the president’s policies engender in the gilets jaunes.
Never responded to this, but a lot of very smart comments!
I think you need to distinguish the institutional/constitutional power of the President, with his political capital (which is much more fickle).
You were very right about the parliament, but I actually think parliament or not, we would still be in a similar situation.
What a s…..d statement. 1,2 millions lost their heads then. Some for political stand, other being denounced by jealous neighbours over things that had nothing to do with politic. The same happened during nazis occupation in the 1940´s bringing back this French national sport of being jealous and rating on neighbours.
France will always be a very divided country. It was rich against poor, collaborationists against resistant, France of the past ( whatever it was ) against Europe……I was reading Marine Le Pen editorial in Le Figaro this morning and it was just a fairytale promising me the country of my grandparents…..or what I remember of it, that is the best part of being a kid.
Tomorrow, Emmanuel Macron will have his say and no doubt it will be the same fairytale like editorial.
One thing I know however and the recent events in Malmö ( of course not reported by French media, I had to read it in the German press ) should be a wake up call as to the danger Le Pen election will bring, if Le Pen gets elected, we can expect the same kind of unrests. Make no mistake, I have no fuzzy feelings toward religion, even less when it comes to Islam who is the key to having France live in ( relative ) peace. As long as Islam followers won’t adhere to the laïc ideals of the French Republic and keep their faith to the limits of their private homes, this country will never be able to live in peace.
Neither Macron or Le Pen will be able to resolve this, despite their very different stand on this pretty explosive issue. It is up to French Islam followers to decide if they want to give the law of the republic precedence over Islam and keep the latter within the limits of their homes.
Back in the early days of Iceland, the then, very wise ruler decided to make Catholicism the official religion, adding “ whatever you do at home is your business “
“it is up to French Islam followers to decide if they want to give the law of the republic precedence over Islam”
Why would they ever do that if, as you say, there is no candidate who will attempt to force them to do so? Why would following the law of France be optional for Muslims in a way it is not for everyone else?
I think the French misunderstand Islam especially and religion in general. Muslims have no philosophical tradition of “separation of mosque and state”, so French secularism makes no sense to them. Religion can’t be “confined to your home”. If you are serious about your god (whoever it is), your religion is the founding architecture of your entire life. The idea that the core of your being must be left at home lest you offend anyone may be France’s goal, but it results in a citizenry of public half-zombies. (Maybe the alternative is worse, but that seems pretty bad.)
Perhaps that’s why the French aren’t bothering to vote; their philosophical cores aren’t allowed into the voting booth — they’re stuck at home.
This apathy is the intended effect of decades of centralisation of power, removing meaningful democratic control from the hands of citizens and funnelling it upwards to bureaucrats to insulate the ‘direction of travel’ from public feedback/intervention.
This isn’t just a problem in France, it’s a major issue all across the west. The voters do indeed grasp that no matter how they vote they will be served the Davos agenda, even if they cannot articulate that elegantly. The power structures have grown to be massive, opaque, even oppressive. Most of all they are unresponsive.
Why vote, when it makes no difference? …when no meaningful change will take place based on the vote?
The only way Marine Le Pen was able to make the runoff was stripping off her most anti-EU, anti-immigrant positions and sentiments. Are French citizens really tired of rule by remote, unaccountable elites? The 2017 result and resulting change in Le Pen implies not.
Regardless, Sunday will be fascinating to watch, especially for those of us in America who don’t have to live with the consequences. Should Le Pen actually win (I know, highly unlikely, but so was Donald Trump) the man who will celebrate the most will be Victor Orban. He’s been praying for a fellow, right-wing government in a major EU state for a while.
I like to call the current political landscape that people in Western societies live in the “Brutalist Democracy” structure.
Just like brutalist architecture which is designed to make the average individual feel small – Western democracies have increasingly become unresponsive, unchanging, and feel increasingly distant to the average voter.
Democracy has shifted from the will of the voters to the interests of life-long bureaucrats, media conglomerates, big tech bigwigs, and elitists from gated communities who continually wage this war of information to make voters from these countries feel divided from one another.
Brutalist architecture often makes buildings feel larger than they are through their use of building materials as the visual focus. No wonder voters are becoming disinterested in participating in a system they feel is beyond their control.
If any change comes to the system it will have to come from outside of it. The dismantling of institutions that were once revered, but have now become stagnant blights, is the only solution to a broken system. Every voter knows there is a problem, but no one knows how to fix it.
In the end the honest truth is that they don’t want us to know how to fix it in the first place.
We actually live under an oxymoron: “liberal democracy”. The idea that these two coexist is absurd.
If you are a committed liberal (seek to liberate people from constraints), then you must support undemocratic means, since voters may want to do illiberal things. Think Hungary’s children’s LGBT law, or slavery in the United States — both illiberal but broadly supported by their citizens.
If you are a committed democrat (the will of the people must prevail), you must accept some illiberal outcomes.
We are living through the end of 60 year reign of the “liberals” over the “democrats” in this unstable, shotgun wedding that we call “liberal democracy”. The rise of the so-called “populists” (like Le Pen) is simply the “democrats” of that equation biting back.
Even weirder, with all the COVID restrictions, it could be argued that the supposedly liberal actors have turned intensely illiberal and undemocratic.
Smart insight Bennie — thanks.
I was going to vote for The Indecisive Party, but just wasn’t sure… so I looked at the apathy party… but could not be bothered…
Whichever candidate wins – and it’s most probably Macron – let’s hope the electorate presents them with a powerful, united national assembly capable of withstanding the agenda.
Dream on……here the parliamentary election is called “ the 3 rd round “ ……or day of reckoning for people like Melanchon or the defeated socialists and republicans.
As to Le Pen, do not forget her party has only……2 seats in parliament and supposing she wins, the shock will so immense that I really doubt she would get the majority in parliament.
Chirac is the one who torpedoed the pretty wise system we had. 7 years term for the president, long enough to implement his program and a 5 years term for parliament to confirm him or shut him up.Very similar to the US mid term election.
We need to go back to this with a one term only 7 years for the president.
Maybe the US can live with such a short term for president, France, as volatile and fickle as it is, clearly needs more time…..but one term only.
Many thanks to François Valentin for this piece. French politics seem more interesting than UK politics, largely due to France’s talented political commentators. I have one quibble. You state that “More than in any other European country, the French President commands immense executive power.”. Yet later you say that Macron “soon discovered that he lacked a mandate for much of his governing agenda.” Doesn’t the extent of the French president’s power hinge on the outcome of the Assemblée nationale elections in June? And also, of course, on level of resentment that the president’s policies engender in the gilets jaunes.
Never responded to this, but a lot of very smart comments!
I think you need to distinguish the institutional/constitutional power of the President, with his political capital (which is much more fickle).
You were very right about the parliament, but I actually think parliament or not, we would still be in a similar situation.
Vive la Guillotine!
What a s…..d statement. 1,2 millions lost their heads then. Some for political stand, other being denounced by jealous neighbours over things that had nothing to do with politic. The same happened during nazis occupation in the 1940´s bringing back this French national sport of being jealous and rating on neighbours.
France will always be a very divided country. It was rich against poor, collaborationists against resistant, France of the past ( whatever it was ) against Europe……I was reading Marine Le Pen editorial in Le Figaro this morning and it was just a fairytale promising me the country of my grandparents…..or what I remember of it, that is the best part of being a kid.
Tomorrow, Emmanuel Macron will have his say and no doubt it will be the same fairytale like editorial.
One thing I know however and the recent events in Malmö ( of course not reported by French media, I had to read it in the German press ) should be a wake up call as to the danger Le Pen election will bring, if Le Pen gets elected, we can expect the same kind of unrests. Make no mistake, I have no fuzzy feelings toward religion, even less when it comes to Islam who is the key to having France live in ( relative ) peace. As long as Islam followers won’t adhere to the laïc ideals of the French Republic and keep their faith to the limits of their private homes, this country will never be able to live in peace.
Neither Macron or Le Pen will be able to resolve this, despite their very different stand on this pretty explosive issue. It is up to French Islam followers to decide if they want to give the law of the republic precedence over Islam and keep the latter within the limits of their homes.
Back in the early days of Iceland, the then, very wise ruler decided to make Catholicism the official religion, adding “ whatever you do at home is your business “
“it is up to French Islam followers to decide if they want to give the law of the republic precedence over Islam”
Why would they ever do that if, as you say, there is no candidate who will attempt to force them to do so? Why would following the law of France be optional for Muslims in a way it is not for everyone else?
I think the French misunderstand Islam especially and religion in general. Muslims have no philosophical tradition of “separation of mosque and state”, so French secularism makes no sense to them. Religion can’t be “confined to your home”. If you are serious about your god (whoever it is), your religion is the founding architecture of your entire life. The idea that the core of your being must be left at home lest you offend anyone may be France’s goal, but it results in a citizenry of public half-zombies. (Maybe the alternative is worse, but that seems pretty bad.)
Perhaps that’s why the French aren’t bothering to vote; their philosophical cores aren’t allowed into the voting booth — they’re stuck at home.
Spot on
The country (France) and her People were far nicer in the time of your Grandparents (I’m assuming you are in late middle age)
Pathetic statement
I’m not sure AA meant it as anything other than a joke.
Thanks!
Don’t “get your knickers in a twist” Bruno, or have you had a sense of humour bypass?
Ha ha ha
Je vous remarcie pour votre rapport. Nous verrons ce qui se passe aujourd’hui.
Equally pathetic
what are you describing?