* Author of
From France.
This country we thought we knew
, (Perrin/Presses de la Cité, 2022) Laetitia Strauch-Bonart is editor-in-chief at
L'Express
.
To discover
Find all the results of the legislative elections
LE FIGARO.
- In your book, you point out the dysfunctions of the French institutional system.
The first round of legislative elections was marked by record abstention.
Does this confirm your diagnosis?
Laetitia STRAUCH-BONART.
-
Enough!
However, I would analyze abstention in two ways.
As Benjamin Constant underlined in a speech that has become famous,
De la liberté des Anciens Comparés a la Liberté des Modernes
, the political freedom of ancient societies was based on the participation of citizens in the deliberations of the city.
In contrast, the freedom of the moderns is the right to go about one's private occupations, protected from state interference, without having to take part in political deliberations.
Hence the invention of representative democracy, but also the right not to vote.
Abstention is therefore not...
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