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The Gilets Jaunes and the New Social Contract

Online ISBN:
9781529214482
Print ISBN:
9781529212204
Publisher:
Policy Press
Book

The Gilets Jaunes and the New Social Contract

Charles Devellennes
Charles Devellennes
University of Kent
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Published online:
23 September 2021
Published in print:
8 January 2021
Online ISBN:
9781529214482
Print ISBN:
9781529212204
Publisher:
Policy Press

Abstract

This book provides a detailed account of the gilets jaunes, the yellow vest movement that has shaken France since 2018. The gilets jaunes are a group of French protesters named after their iconic yellow vests worn during their demonstrations, who have formed a new type of social movement. They have been variously interpreted since they began their occupation of French roundabouts: at first received with enthusiasm on the right of the French political establishment, and with caution on the left. They have provided a fundamental challenge to the social contract in France, the implicit pact between the governed and their political leaders. The book assesses what lessons can be drawn from their activities and the impact for the contemporary relationship between state and citizen. Informed by a dialogue with past political theorists — from Hobbes, Spinoza and Rousseau to Rawls, Nozick and Diderot — and reflecting on the challenges posed by the yellow vest movement, the book rethinks the concept of the social contract for contemporary societies around the world. It proposes a new relationship between the state and the individual, and establishes the necessity of rethinking the modern democratic nature of our representative polities in order to provide a genuine process for the healing of social ills.

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