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. To understand the significance of Sarkozy, we have to look beyond the right-wing populism and vulgarity of the man himself, and ask what he represents: a reactionary tradition that goes back to the early nineteenth century, a tradition based on fear. Badiou argues that to escape from the atmosphere of depression and anxiety that currently envelops the Left, we need to cast aside the slavish worship of electoral democracy. In a characteristically doughty and wide-ranging conclusion, Alain Badioun maps out a 'communist hypothesis' that can lay the basis for a genuine emancipatory politics in the twenty-first century.

About the Author :
Alain Badiou teaches philosophy at the École normale supérieure and the Collège international de philosophie in Paris. He is the author of several seminal works, including Theory of the Subject, Being and Event and Manifesto for Philosophy. His recent books include The Meaning of Sarkozy, and The Communist Hypothesis.

Review :
"A brilliant polemic on whatthe new French President stands for, and what theLeft should never stand for. Written in the traditionof Marx's Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,Badiou's book bristles with angry intelligence,excavating the ore of hope from a politics ofparalysis and prejudice." W. Malley, Times Higher Education Supplement "Compelling ... He deconstructs, with languid, sarcastic ferocity, the notion that 'France chose Sarkozy'... a very French piece of political venom." The Observer "Magnificently stirring - a characteristically lucid polemic from a philosopher who is far from willing to abandon humanity to the vicissitudes of so-called global capitalism. " Mark Fisher, Frieze "One of the most important philosophers writing today." Joan Copjec "Scarcely any other moral thinker of our day is as politically clear-sighted and courageously polemical, so prepared to put notions of truth and universality back on the agenda... Badiou has launched a transformative new intervention, which deserves to provoke a persisting response." Terry Eagleton "Badiou is at his strongest in pointing to the inconsistencies of a facile multiculturalism, the pluralism of the food court and the shopping mall, which wilts in the face of any genuine expression of cultural hostility to liberal values." Radical Philosophy "A book that aims at the very heart of politically correct "radical" intellectuals, undermining the foundations of their very mode of life!" Slavoj Zizek"