France’s Elections Show the Need for a New Revolution

The Country's Centralized Model Is a Danger to Democracy. Local Communities Could Fill the Void

Lire en français | Lesen Sie auf Deutsch

Might this month’s French elections be the prelude to another French Revolution?

The problems with these dismal elections are many—low turnout, moribund public debate, the popularity of politicians running as Putinist populists, and an uninspiring incumbent president, Emmanuel Macron. But at the heart of the French democratic recession is a void where local democracy should be.

That void stems from France’s highly centralized system of government.

Democracy, at its core, is a local thing—everyday people governing themselves. But France’s powerful national government, and its administrative …

by Joe Mathews | April 19, 2022

When Music Became Therapy in Interwar France

In the Face of Uncertainty, Trauma, and Extreme Isolation, Musicians Turned to Their Art

by Jillian C. Rogers | January 24, 2022

In March of 2020 I found myself alone (except for my two cats) in a small bungalow in Bloomington, Indiana, trying and failing to distract myself from COVID-19. I was …

The Female Cooks Who Shaped French Cuisine

A New Generation of Chefs Is Melding the Domestic and Professional—And Moving Toward Equality in the Restaurant Kitchen

by Rachel E. Black | October 13, 2021

As I perch on a stool in her kitchen in Lyon, I think about what makes Sonia Ezgulian’s cooking so compelling. Ezgulian, who is also a journalist, is well known …

What Nineteenth-Century Europeans Can Teach America About Peacekeeping Occupations

Rather Than Rendering a Defeated Post-Napoleonic France Dependent, Victorious Allies Sought to Create Lasting Stability

by Christine Haynes | March 19, 2019

How do you win the peace?

The recent American military occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq highlight the risks of “winning the war, but losing the peace,” to borrow the subtitle …

How Traffic Circles Became Ground Zero for the French Middle Class

Garrisoned in Roundabouts, ‘Yellow Vest’ Protesters Want Urban Elites to Respect Their Suburban Dream

by Robert Zaretsky | December 5, 2018

Just over 50 years ago, Jacques Tati’s Playtime opened in French movie theaters. In the comedy, Tati once again features his iconic character, Monsieur Hulot, the confused but courtly Parisian …

How France’s Panthéon Started Living Up to the Nation’s Ideals

Resistance Heroine Simone Veil Was Laid to Rest This Summer Alongside Voltaire and Rousseau—the Fifth Woman So Honored

by Robert Zaretsky | July 27, 2018

When architectural critics gaze at the Panthéon in the Latin Quarter of Paris, one thought often comes to mind: Rarely have so many blocks of stone been heaped so high …

Get More Zócalo