The Meaning of SarkozyAlain Badiou, France's leading radical theorist and commentator, dissects the Sarkozy phenomenon in this sharp, focused intervention. He argues that the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as President does not necessarily signal a crucial turning point in French politics, nor require a further rightward move from competing electoral forces. To understand the significance of Sarkozy, we have to look beyond the right-wing populism and vulgarity of the man himself, and ask what he represents: a reactionary tradition that goes back to the early nineteenth century, a tradition based on fear. Badiou argues that to escape from the atmosphere of depression and anxiety that currently envelops the Left, we need to cast aside the slavish worship of electoral democracy. In a characteristically doughty and wide-ranging conclusion, Alain Badioun maps out a 'communist hypothesis' that can lay the basis for a genuine emancipatory politics in the twenty-first century. |
Contents
Introduction to the EnglishLanguage Edition | 1 |
Before the Election | 7 |
After the Election | 21 |
Copyright | |
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action African Alain Badiou Alter-globalization assert Badiou Bernard Tapie Bernard-Henri Lévy blow Brice Hortefeux called Chirac communist hypothesis consequences corruption courage Cultural Revolution declared democratic depression dialectic dictatorship disorientation dominant École Normale Supérieure election of Sarkozy example existence fear of fear foreign origin France French Gaullism genuine global hold honoured human idea identity illusion impotence to impossibility individual intellectual Jacques Rancière kind Left living Marx Marxism mass means Mitterrand monetary signs moral crisis movement Nicolas Sarkozy nostalgia organize original fear Paris Commune parliamentary particular Pétain Pétainism philosophical police politics of emancipation Popular Front possible present question reactionary real point reality revolutionaries rich rupture Sarkozy's second sequence Ségolène Royal sense service of wealth simply single world situation Socialist Party spectre subjective symbol terror thing unity universal unleashed capitalism victory virtue vote wall words