The meaning of Sarkozy

Alain Badiou, France's leading radical theorist and commentator, dissects the Sarkozy phenomenon in this sharp, focused intervention. He argues that the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as President does not necessarily signal a crucial turning point in French politics, nor require a further rightward move from competing electoral forces.

Tounderstand the significance of Sarkozy, we have to look beyond theright-wing populism and vulgarity of the man himself, and ask what he represents: a reactionary tradition that goes back to the early nineteenthcentury, a tradition based on fear.

Badiou argues that to escape from the atmosphere of depression and anxiety thatcurrently envelops the Left, we need to cast aside the slavish worship ofelectoral democracy. In a characteristically doughty and wide-ranging conclusion, Alain Badioun maps out a 'communist hypothesis' that can laythe basis for a genuine emancipatory politics in the twenty-first century.