La Grande Nation and Agriculture: The Power of French Farmers Demystified

France is considered a strong state, but French governments have always fiercely defended the interests of French farmers in European and global negotiations. Why would a ‘strong state’ be unable to resist farm lobby pressure? Is agriculture an exception to the French ‘strong state’ rule? This article offers a structural model of varying state sensitivity to interest group pressure, and argues that farm lobby pressure cannot fully explain French foreign policy on agriculture, as governments often go against farmers' preferences and as the level of pressure varies more than the continuity of governmental preferences. From an analysis of the negotiations on the CAP and the GATT in the 1960s and in the 1990s it emerges that ideational constraints played a major role in French obstinacy. The defence of French identity as La Grande Nation, necessitating a presence in world agricultural markets, and the defence of a strong Europe under French leadership as a counterweight to the United States, have guided French preferences without regard to the farmers' positions.     

消费社会批判:西方马克思主义的一次重要转向--以列斐伏尔为主线的研究

从对古典资本主义工业社会的生产劳动异化批判到对当代资本主义社会的消费文化异化批判,这是西方马克思主义后期发展的一个重要转向.而列斐伏尔的消费受控制社会批判理论、马尔库塞的单向度社会批判理论以及哈贝马斯的公共生活领域理论,则是这个转向中的最重要代表.研究消费社会批判理论对于全面认识中国目前正在进行的全面建设小康社会的现代化实践具有重要的借鉴意义.     

La’cit Unveiled: A case study in human rights, religion, and culture in France

This paper examines the debate around the headscarf in France with the view to critically examining two central arguments put forward by the Stasi Commission for the restriction of the headscarf in French public schools—that the headscarf imperiled public order and that it jeopardized neutrality in the public sphere. In the case of the first argument, this paper argues that France did not meet the threshold requirement necessary to curtail religious rights in public schools. In the case of the second argument, this paper insists that neutrality in the pulic sphere has always involved some accommodation of religious groups in society and should include the headscarf in public schools. The paper argues that the decision to ban the headscarf is ultimately a controversy about French identity and the values on which the French community is built.