For the first time in his long career as a political scientist, Pascal Perrineau has written a book where he talks about himself. But as you don't change yourself at 72,
Le Goût de la politique
is also an attempt to explain the democratic malaise into which France has been sinking since the Mitterrand years. The former socialist activist - he joined the PS in 1977 and left it in 1981, when the left won! -, who has become an eminent academic, cannot be consoled by the evolution of both political debate and political science.
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“The public thing (res publica),
he writes,
takes you out of yourself and gives you access to something other than your private roots, whether sexual, ethnic, social, religious or cultural. This uprooting of citizenship is an emancipation because it frees you from the slavery of your belongings and your guardianships.”
Today, he thinks that
“the aggregation of particular interests within broad coalitions has become almost impossible”
, due to
“upheavals…
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