French Public Opinion Research Articles

Mary Queen of Scots and French Public Opinion, 1542-1600 (review)

Mary Queen of Scots and French Public Opinion, 1542-1600 (review)

:Mary Queen of Scots and French Public Opinion, 1542-1600

:<i>Mary Queen of Scots and French Public Opinion, 1542-1600</i>

Review: Mary Queen of Scots and French Public Opinion, 1542–1600

Mary Queen of Scots and French Public Opinion, 1542–1600 by Alexander S. Wilkinson (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan , 2004 ; pp. 239. £45 ).

Episodes in catching-up: Anglo-French industrial productivity differentials in 1930

The secular process of convergence in income and product per capita among industrial countries has attracted much well-deserved attention. In Western Europe especially, the cradle of modern industry, this attention has focused on the ways in which ‘follower countries’ have caught up with (or fallen behind) the long-time ‘regional’ technological leader, Great Britain. In this context, a long tradition considers France as offering the standard alternative to modern British economic institutions and development (Kindleberger 1964). With regard to economic performance, however, it is only recently that claims have been backed by systematic quantitative evidence. Despite sometimes conflicting interpretations, a consensus view has gradually emerged (Crouzet 2003) which concludes that the Anglo-French gap in income and productive capacity slowly closed from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, reconciling ex post calculations with some of the conclusions of enlightened contemporaries and later historians (Bairoch 1982, Crafts 1984). After World War II and the introduction of standardised national accounts, the course of productivity and real income per head in both countries is much better documented and suggests the completion of the secular catching-up process by the 1960s (Van Ark 1990). However, between the ‘controlled conjectures’ of the pre-World War I era and the quasi-certainties of post-1945, the interwar years still remain a grey zone. During the 1920s, Britain's industry, marred by industrial unrest, mass unemployment and loss of competitiveness, is supposed to have fared especially poorly compared with its competitors, Germany and the US. In a book published in 1931, a French scholar, Andre Siegfried, claimed that Britain was descending along the path of industrial decline (Siegfried 1931). By this time, France had completed its postwar reconstruction, the value of the franc had been stabilised, and the French economy was in full swing: in 1930 French public opinion basked complacently in the belief that the country would be spared the devastating effects of the depression sparked by the Wall Street crash.

Irritable bowel syndrome in France: a common, debilitating and costly disorder.

This epidemiological investigation aims to measure the prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in the general population using the Rome II criteria and to evaluate the medical management including treatments and the impact of IBS on patient life. A nationally representative sample of 20,000 French subjects, aged 18 years and over, were interviewed by SOFRES (French Public Opinion Poll Institute) in May 2001. In a second phase (June/July 2001), a 48-question self-administered questionnaire was given to the subjects who have been selected during the first phase as suffering from IBS (Rome II criteria). The prevalence of IBS was 4.7% (confidence interval, 4.36-5.04% with 5% risk) with a predominance in women (5.7% versus 3.7%, P < 0.01). The abdominal pain was often longstanding (> 5 years, 50%), intense (43%) and nocturnal (35%). During the most recent painful episode the levels of associated transit problems were almost equally divided between diarrhoea (36%), constipation (29%) and alternate episodes of both (31%). Apart from pain, bloating was given as the most frequent (73%) and most troublesome (24%) symptom. Since the onset, 80% of subjects with IBS had consulted a doctor (90% consulted a general physician, 57% a gastroenterologist, 50% both) and of these, 80% consulted within the previous 12 months. Sixty-seven per cent of subjects underwent additional investigations since the start of their illness (average of 3.4 examinations per patient examined: colonoscopy, 34.1%; laboratory tests, 34%; and abdominal ultrasound, 27.7%). Over the previous 12 months, 8% of the subjects had been admitted to hospital (average length of stay, 6.6 days), 11% of employed subjects had to take time off, 93% of subjects had taken prescribed medication (87%), but 43% of people thought it was ineffective. The effect on daily life was considerable (score, 6.2/10; close to the score for flu, 7/10). Two-thirds of the individuals changed their diet; 54% said it affected their social life and 29% their professional life. Seventy-four per cent of patients trusted their doctor, with a satisfaction index of 63%, but 45% of patients would like to have more information on IBS. This study confirmed that the Rome II criteria detected IBS with a prevalence of 4.7%. The recruited subjects had severe symptoms (frequency, intensity and duration) that had a considerable effect on their daily life. The high level of referrals and initial consultations in all categories and the patient's attitudes towards the illness and its treatment emphasize the relative ineffectiveness of care for patients suffering from IBS.

'Homicides Royaux': The Assassination of the Duc and Cardinal de Guise and the Radicalization of French Public Opinion

The propaganda campaign launched in response to the assassination of the Duc and Cardinal de Guise on the orders of Henri III in December 1588 was the largest waged in the history of sixteenth-century France. Yet, it has never been the subject of systematic investigation. This article aims to fill this historiographical lacuna by presenting a broad survey of the principal arguments and techniques employed both by the Royalists, who sought to justify the act, and the Leaguers who exploited the event to radicalize Catholic opinion against Henri III. It finds that while the King was partly unwilling and partly unable to engage in any serious attempt to influence public opinion, the League exploited the media to defend the Guises as Catholic martyrs and to discredit the King as a criminal and irreligious tyrant.

L'influence de la mémoire de la Révolution française et de l'Empire napoléonien dans l'opinion publique française face à la guerre d'Espagne de 1823

Kôbô Seigan, Memories of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire and their Impact on French Public Opinion at the Time of the Spanish War of 1823 The war against revolutionary Spain enthralled the French press under the Restoration. The liberal newspaper Le Constitutionnel was hostile to the war, while the ultra La Quotidienne was in favour. Both discussed the issue by referring to official texts, private letters, English newspapers and even papers from the opposite camp. Moreover, the war rekindled memories of the French Revolution and the Empire. The Constitutionnels version, however, was ambivalent. It separated the Revolution from the Terror and favoured the former to the detriment of Napoleon, thus doing nothing to encourage Bonapartism. It also dwelt on the importance of forgetting the past. For La Quotidienne, the Napoleonic period was subsumed in the Revolution. Its logic was simple but powerful. Besides, it succeeded in becoming a "mouthpiece" for those who had fallen for the nation and criticized the liberals for being unpatriotic.

The Other Side of the Veil

The “headscarf affair,” Muslim girls wearing veils to school, has generated a storm of controversy in France. This study uses the headscarf affair to explore Muslim immigrant women's views of their place in French society and reveals that even those who disagree with French public opinion often invoke arguments that are more French than North African. Interviews with 41 North African women show that younger, well-educated women defend the headscarf as a matter of personal liberty and cultural expression. Older, poorly educated women either defend or reject the veil but never discuss the issue of secularism. In dismissing the veil, they rely on a different understanding of Muslim womanhood. A third group opposes the veil, arguing that the goal of school is integration. Respondents' answers are interpreted according to structural factors and cultural repertoires, both North African and French.

Les créoles louisianais défendent la cause du Sud à Paris (1861‑1865)

During the Civil war, the French‑educated Creole elite of Louisiana played an important part in efforts to persuade France to support the Confederacy. This article analyses the arguments put forward by three famous Creoles living in Paris during the Civil War (Paul Pequet du Bellet, Dr Alfred Mercier and Dr Charles Delèry) to rally French public opinion to the cause of the Confederacy. Faced with a strong anti‑slavery sentiment, they argued that France’s interest lies in defending the South and its « Latin race » from the aggressions of the Anglo‑Saxon North.

Foreign Policy and the Rational Public in Comparative Perspective

The aggregate changes in public opinion attitudes toward foreign policy issues in three West European countries during the cold war decades (1954-1990) are analyzed. The stability hypothesis is addressed from different angles to ascertain the amount of change in public opinion attitudes toward foreign policy issues in France, Germany, and Italy. Results reveal a low level of volatility in public opinion that corresponds with the findings for the American public. On the other hand, French, German, and Italian public opinion shows a somewhat higher level of fluctuation than in the United States. Attitudes toward NATO, the United States, and the Soviet Union closely reflect the evolution of world politics and therefore represent a reasonable reaction to international events and crises.

Growing French acceptance of GM

Two-thirds of French consumers would not be against genetically modified foods if they were labeled clearly, according to a study carried out by INRS, the governmental agricultural research institute in France. The study shows that the hostility towards GM in French public opinion does not reflect the actions of individuals’ consumption. The researchers say that during the first GM wave, French consumers were forced into compliance, which created a backlash. The study also reported that French people are already consuming GMOs, often without knowing it. The other third of responders plans to boycott all GM products. Reuters. TS

Public utilities and low income customers – A marketing approach

There is increasing recognition of the importance of dealing with material hardship rather than just income poverty. This paper deals with electricity disconnection and shows how Electricité de France (EDF), the French monopoly provider of electricity, has been testing a number of new policy instruments to avoid disconnection among its low income residential customers. EDF’s approach is grounded in marketing principles and techniques both in terms of its willingness to respond to French public opinion on the need to reduce poverty and hardship, and in terms of its use of poor customers surveys to analyze the satisfaction of this segment of clientele to its energy assistance programs. EDF’s programmes show how utilities, both public and private, can go beyond financial assistance as represented by the LIHEAP energy voucher programme in the USA.

A Century of Organized Labor in France: A Union Movement for the Twenty-First Century?

Acknowledgements Foreword G.Seguy Introduction: The Exceptional Trajectory of the French Labor Movement H.Chapman, M.Kesselman, M.A.Schain PART I: HISTORICAL TRAJECTORY: DECLINE OF MILITANTISM, INTER-UNION RELATIONS, AND RELATIONS WITH POLITICAL PARTIES Strategies and Events: The 'Form' of the CGT From 1936 to 1968 R.Mouriaux Reconceptualizing the Relationship Between Unions and Politics in France A.Daley PART II: ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING AND TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE The Restructuring of Capital and Employment J.Magniadas Technology and the Labor Movement: Constraint or Opportunity for the CGT? M.Kesselman PART III: UNIONS, SOCIETY, AND WORKER MOBILIZATION Immigration and Trade Unions in France: A Problem and an Opportunity M.A.Schain Trade Unions and the Diversification of Class Structure: Technical Culture and Criticism of Power G.Groux The French Strike and Social Divide: The End of Consensus Politics? B.H.Moss Women and French Unions: Historical Perspectives on the Current Crisis of Representation L.Levine Frader PART IV: UNIONS, PUBLIC OPINION, AMD THE STATE One Century Later: Unions in French Public Opinion - Representations, Images and Expectations R.Cayrol Labor, Power, and the State in France: Lessons of Industrial Restructuring W.Rand Smith Virtual Trade Unionism in France: A Commentary on The Question of Unions, Public Opinion, and the State C.Howell PART V: THE INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGE: GLOBALIZATION AND THE EUROPEAN UNION The CGT's Internationalism: What Europe, What World? G.Ross The New International Trade Unionism J.Page About the Authors Index

Education and Muslim Identity: The case of France

The French republican principles upon which public education is based include strict separation of religion from schooling. At the same time, public funds subsidise a large number of private schools, over 90% Catholic. Virtually no recognition or public support is provided for Muslim or Jewish schools, nor is there any public or group demand that it do so. This article examines the complex and changing context in which Muslim identity has evolved in France for and by second and third generation immigrants of Muslim origin from the Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia) or to a lesser degree from ex-Yugoslavia, Turkey or sub Saharan Africa. The latest phase is the most confrontational as the Muslim origin population, regardless of its actual heterogeneity or length of stay in France, is affected by the waves of terrorism and fundamentalism flowing from the Algerian civil war. Ill-informed French public opinion frequently amalgamates all Maghreb or Machrek individuals and communities when faced with the threat of violence. This article situates the official discourse which proclaims that the state and its schools promote a secular and equal opportunity for all and at the same time makes no allowance for cultural, linguistic, religious or socio-economic diversity. It examines more recent attempts by French governments to address the longer term needs and aspirations (especially religious) of immigrant populations of Muslim origin as it becomes clear that these populations are massively becoming French citizens and have no further plans to return to countries of origin. The article concludes with reflections on the specificity of the French approach to religious and cultural diversity. Above all, it emphasises a certain unity of view across political parties and communities that this specificity, although in crisis, does not require major change of the traditional republican approach.

Sartre on the American Working Class Seven Articles in Combat from 6 to 30 June, 1945

In early 1945, with the war not yet over, Sartre travelled to the United States for the first time. He travelled with a group of correspondents who were invited in order to influence French public opinion favourably towards the United States.1 Sartre was sent by his friend Albert Camus to report back to Combat, the leading newspaper of the independent left. Once invited, he arranged also to report back to the conservative newspaper, Le Figaro. Simone de Beauvoir reports that learning of Camus’ invitation in late 1944 was one of the most exciting moments of Sartre’s life.

The All‐Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries and French Intellectuals, 1925–29

The 1920s and 1930s were years of active personal support for the USSR by a number of eminent French intellectuals who assisted in the creation of an image of the USSR in French public opinion. This was largely based on their perceptions of the social, political and cultural achievements in Soviet society. Analysis of the archival, and mainly unpublished, documents of VOKS (the All‐Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries) illustrate the true nature of an organisation that claimed to have been created in order to promote international cultural relations. The internal correspondence and reports reveal the mechanisms used by VOKS from its inception in order to create, foster, and manipulate relations with numerous members of the French intelligentsia. Also revealed in this paper is the leading role played by VOKS in the creation of the USSR‐France “cultural” friendship societies, its policies concerning the selection and treatment of French visitors, and other features of political propaganda that have been commonly considered to belong to the period of the 1930s.

Bishop Lynch's Civil War Pamphlet on Slavery

David C.R. Heisser* President Jefferson Davis in 1864 appointed Bishop Patrick Neison Lynch of Charleston, South Carolina, to be Commissioner of the Confederate States of America to the States of the Church. An ardent Confederate, Bishop Lynch undertook a mission to Europe to win recognition by the Holy See. As part of his contribution to the Southern cause he wrote a tract on slavery which was published in Italian, German, and French, but never in English.' This article discusses Lynch's participation in the Confederate propaganda effort, considers his ideas in the context of the time, and presents representative selections from his original English text. Lynch accepted appointment on March 3, 1864; on April 4 Secretary of State Judah P Benjamin instructed the Bishop to seek recognition and, more importantly, to work for enlightening opinions and molding impressions of European leaders. Lynch was to receive a monthly salary of $1,000 plus $500 for travel.2 In Patrick Lynch the Confederate government chose an acknowledged leader of the Catholic Church in America. Born in Ireland, he was brought up in South Carolina and studied for the priesthood at the seminary of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide), the department of the Roman Curia that administered the Catholic Church in America. Lynch had received his doctorate in Rome and spoke fluent Italian. He knew Alessandro Cardinal Barnabo, Prefect of the Propaganda Fide and an influential advisor to Pope Pius IX.3 When Fort Sumter fell to the Confederates Lynch ordered a Te Deum sung in his cathedral.4 He championed Southern independence in a public exchange of letters with Archbishop John Hughes of New York.5 Jefferson Davis admired Lynch for his work with sick and wounded servicemen and prisoners of war, and the Bishop was a member of the President's entourage during the latter's 1863 visit to Charleston.6 In an appeal to his faithful for prayers for peace Lynch praised the Confederate government and armies.7 During April, 1864, the Bishop ran the blockade and sailed to Europe.8 In Paris he met with Confederate agent John Slidell and propagandists Henry Hotze and Edwin De Leon, a fellow South Carolinian. Emperor Napoleon III gave Lynch an audience on June 14, and a few days later the Bishop traveled to Rome, arriving on the 26th.9 He took lodgings in that city, where he was to entertain prominent people and acquire a reputation for hospitality.'o To Giacomo Cardinal Antonelli, Papal Secretary of State, he communicated the Confederacy's desire for recognition. Antonelli was polite but non-committal. On July 4 Pope Pius IX received Lynch in private audience as Charleston's ordinary, but not as Confederate representative. Pius said of North and South, It is clear that you are two nations, expressed willingness to mediate and opposition to sudden emancipation. But still, remarked the Pontiff, something might be done looking to an improvement in [the slaves'] position or state, and to a gradual preparation for their freedom at a future opportune time. The Bishop had subsequent, cordial conversations with Pius and Antonelli, but made no progress toward recognition. Antonelli assured United States Minister Rufus King that Lynch was received only as a bishop making his ad limina visit.12 Just after his first audience with the Pope, Lynch wrote Benjamin, I am now engaged in drawing up a paper on the actual condition and treatment of slaves at the South, at the request of Msgr. [Francesco] Nardi, one of the judges of the Rota, or supreme court of the papal States.13 All Confederate agents contended with the bad name slavery gave their country. These agents had organized a propaganda effort in Europe. Henry lotze edited and published the Index, a London newspaper presenting the Southern perspective. Across the Channel, the Emperor and his supporters generally favored the South, and progovernment newspapers reflected this, but Napoleon III had to pay close attention to French public opinion. …

Reading the diplomatic reports of Petras Klimas from Paris

Petras Klimas (1891-1969) was one of the creators of independent Lithuania, as well as a historian and diplomat. In 1925-1940, he was the ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania in Paris. The reports of diplomats in their native states are a very important historical source. The largest number of P. Klimas's reports are kept in the Lithuanian State Archives. They are full of information and estimation, which help one better understand the international and internal situation in Lithuania at that time. In confidential reports, P. Klimas used the opportunity to express his independent opinion, which sometimes contradicted the politics and propaganda of the official Lithuanian authority. In the reports, most attention was paid to the attitude of the power of France, people, and mass media on the argument between Lithuania and Poland with respect to Vilnius. The struggle between two arguing states was reflected in them. In this struggle, both Lithuanian and Polish diplomats tried to turn French public opinion to their own advantage, sometimes granting subsidies to some newspapers and journalists. The Poles had larger financial possibilities and influence on French public opinion. Poland was the most important ally of France in Eastern Europe. P. Klimas cited the words of one influential journalist: "Poland never gives Vilnius to Lithuania. Thus, the actions of the French in this direction would mean the instigation of their ally without any necessity." In these conditions, it was difficult for the Lithuanian diplomats to disregard hostile propaganda and disinformation spread by the Poles. The French public opinion malevolently reacted to the coup in Lithuania on December 17, 1926, the liquidation of parliamentarianism, and the strict measures in respect to opposition. That’s why the French mass media benevolently reacted to the resignation of A. Voldemaras, whom the French considered the culprit of the politics of repressions, from the post of Prime Minister in August, 1929. Personally, P. Klimas didn’t support the strict measures, but he tried to serve Lithuania, not one or another political trend. He didn’t see an alternative to the nation’s power.

Garetta case causes clash with French public opinion

Garetta case causes clash with French public opinion

La France et le Maghreb

France and the Maghrib, by Paul-Marie de La Gorce For obvious historical, geographical and strategie reasons ineluding the human dimension, relations with the Maghrib countries are important to French foreign policy. They are marked by the different ways in which French political circles and public opinion view each of these countries as well as the differences in each regime and the ways in which their domestic policy has evolved. This is especially true of Algeria. The development of Algerian fundamentalism, the interruptions of the élections in January 1992, the harsh confrontations of the following years, French differences regarding the nature and the outecome of this crisis, the 16 November presidential elections — all these events coming after the enormous hope inspired by the events of 1988 have tested French North African policy.