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171. France's Double-Talk on Globalization

Author:
Sophie Meunier
Publication Date:
03-2003
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
France has become a worldwide champion of anti-globalization. French intellectuals have long denounced the cultural and economic shortcomings of US-led globalization, while French politicians, on the Left as on the Right, load their speeches with rhetoric critical of a phenomenon that gets a lot less attention in other European countries and in the United States. Yet, at the same time, France is a country whose economy and society have adapted well to this much-criticized globalization. Why this double-speak? Why this disjuncture between words and actions? This article explores this paradox, analyzes the role that France's double discourse on globalization has played in producing the surprising outcome of the 2002 elections, and reflects on the options open to the main political parties today.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, and France

172. Creating a Tourist's Paradise: The Marshall Plan and France, 1948 to 1952 [Dossier: Promoting American Tourism in Postwar France]

Author:
Brian A. McKenzie
Publication Date:
03-2003
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
This article examines the promotion of American tourism to France during the Marshall Plan. The paper assesses the cultural and economic goals of the tourism program. Economic aid provided by the United States was essential for the post-war reconstruction of the French tourism industry. Furthermore, transatlantic air carriers adopted new guidelines for tourist class airfares at the urging of U.S. officials. The paper also examines marketing strategies and the creation of tourism infrastructures that facilitated transatlantic tourism. Representatives from the French tourism industry visited the United States to study American hotels and they agreed to adopt practices and rebuild French hotels in ways that would be congenial to American tourists. The paper demonstrates that French and American officials and tourism professionals Americanized the French tourism industry during the Marshall Plan.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
United States, America, and France

173. The Gallic Rooster Crows Again: The Paradox of French Anti-Americanism

Author:
Richard Kuisel
Publication Date:
06-2001
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
What might a historical perspective provide toward understanding the current bout of bashing Uncle Sam? There is a pattern to Gallic anti-Americanism. It peaks, as it did in the 1950s and again today, when the U.S. postures as a socio-economic model and threatens a cultural invasion. But there are also new features to contemporary attacks on America. What has intensified French perceptions of American domination stems from changes within France as the nation pursues competitiveness and openness. These changes have brought a perception among the French that they have lost an idealized construction of "France" and are increasingly powerless over forces like globalization and European integration. Globalization in particular magnifies the presence and power of America. Anxiety about loss is transferred to an America that appears intrusive and selfserving. Neo-anti-Americanism is a form of retaliation—retaliation against a seemingly omnipotent United States which tries to impose the self-serving process of globalization on France; retaliation against our obstructionist, expendable and unreliable hegemony in international politics; and retaliation against American promotion of our flawed social model, which challenges a traditional construction of Frenchness.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Europe