DAVID BELL School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds UK TONY CHAFER Professor of Contemporary French Area Studies and Director of the Centre for European and International Studies Research at the University of Portsmouth, UKSUE COLLARD Sussex European Institute, UKHUGH DAUNCEY Newcastle University. UKHELEN DRAKE Loughborough University, UKEMMANUEL GODIN University of Portsmouth, UKABOULAYE GUEYE University of Ottawa, CanadaROBERT HARMSEN University of LuxembourgNICK HEWLETT University of Warwick, UKRAYMOND KUHN Queen Mary, University of London, UKMARGARET MAJUMDAR University of Portsmouth, UKSUSAN MILNER University of Bath, UKMARTIN SCHAIN New York University, USANATALYA VINCE Queen Mary, University of London, UK

'This is an extremely interesting book that makes an important contribution to scholarship. I think that students of contemporary French politics and sociology will find much to think about in this stimulating read.' - West European Politics

• Introduction; T.Chafer & E.Godin SECTION I: THE FRENCH STATE The French Exception: Rise and Fall of a Saint-Simonian Discourse; S.Collard Reviving the French Exception? Sarkozy, Authoritarian Populism and the Bonapartist Tradition; N.Hewlett Social Policy and the French 'Exceptional' Social Model; S.Milner 'L'exception Culturelle'; H.Dauncey SECTION II: CONFLICTS AND POLARIZATION The French Extreme Left and the Persistence of a Revolutionary Myth; D.Bell French Euroscepticism and the Construction of National Exceptionalism; R.Harmsen SECTION III: CITIZENSHIP AND THE REPUBLICAN MODEL French Immigration Policy in Comparative Perspective; M.A.Schain France, Islam and LaIcité: Colonial Exceptions, Contemporary Reinventions and European Convergence; N.Vince From Private Lives to Intimate Revelations: Politicians and the Media in Contemporary France; R.Kuhn SECTION IV: FRANCE AS A UNIVERSAL MODEL France in Europe, Europe in France: The Politics of Exceptionalism and their Limits; H.Drake Back to the Future? Franco-African Relations in the Shadow of France's Colonial Past; M.Majumdar & T.Chafer SECTION V: THE FRENCH EXCEPTION SEEN FROM ABROAD A View from the South: France in African Eyes: Universalism and Francophonie Reassessed; A.Gueye SECTION VI: CONCLUSION: FRENCH EXCEPTIONALISM RECONSIDERED French Exceptionalism and the Sarkozy Presidency; T.Chafer & E.Godin