Marcel Gauchet, Pierre-André Taguieff and the question of democracy in France

Abstract

As its starting-point this article situates the new reactionaries controversy in relation to recent intellectual debates on the alleged national crisis of confidence in France's political and social models. The political ideas of Marcel Gauchet and Pierre-André Taguieff, two of the leading figures named by Daniel Lindenberg, are examined here to illustrate some key theoretical questions concerning the historical processes which have led to the current crisis, and the possible directions in which France could move in the future. Neither Gauchet nor Taguieff deserves to be labelled as a reactionary in the sense implied by Lindenberg. However they have both offered sophisticated perspectives on the problems of adaptation faced by France with regard to the practice of government, the evolution of democracy, changing patterns of civic participation, and the challenge of integrating ethnic minorities, during a period when Europeanization and globalization call the role of the nation-state itself into question.