The Government of the European Union and a Changing France

Abstract

Empirical research has conclusively shown that the task of negotiating and implementing European Union (EU) laws and policies now permeates contemporary relations among the French State, markets and civil society. Notwithstanding this empirical evidence, the analytical consequences of European integration’s impact upon France have yet to be directly addressed. The principal reason for this failing is that the social sciences obdurately persist in examining the EU through the blurred lens of “international bargaining”. Despite clear signs of its obsolescence, this perspective on contemporary politics continues to encourage researchers to study “levels” of government upon which “European” and “national” actors neatly align themselves to do battle. Whilst producing a great deal of important data and insights, such research inevitably produces highly predictable and over-general interpretations of the EU’s impacts upon individual member states such as “states still matter” or “in some sectors the state matters more than in others”.