CEDRE: Going to the Heart of the Issues Facing Republics

PSL: You’re the director of CEDRE, the European Center for Republican Studies, which was founded in July 2016. What are its principal objectives?

Olivier Christin: CEDRE’s objectives all stem from the priority we give to conducting and internationalizing research on topics that are often subject to national or unconscious biases, as well as to disseminating research and using its findings in different contexts.CEDRE conducts, supports and coordinates research that focuses on theories of the Republic, the history of republican ideas and doctrines, political practices that are specific to republican systems of government and the history of republican political experience. We organize conferences and seminars and participate in research projects and a variety of events; we also publish conference proceedings as well as original works. In addition, we work with secondary school teachers and educators to produce new instructional resources (curricula for history programs and moral and civic instruction) that are inspired by current research. In the spring of 2017, for example, CEDRE actively contributed to in-school workshops that examined issues related to elections and electoral practices in Lyon and the surrounding region. Those workshops were a big success among both students and teachers, and will soon be reprised in the form of a serious game published by the Réseau Canopé, an organization that designs instructional materials. CEDRE also takes part in public discussions, again based on its research, and among other initiatives will be launching a series of public interviews with researchers and policymakers in early 2018 on issues related to democracy.

PSL: You’ll be playing an active role in the colloquium held by the Association des Préfets de France that’s scheduled for late September in Paris. Can you tell us about some of the major topics that will be discussed and how CEDRE will be contributing?

OC: The Claude Érignac Colloquia are hosted on a regular basis by the association of France’s local prefectures, tackling issues that directly relate to governments, national institutions and central government operations. They feature discussions and lively debate among top civil servants, elected officials, policymakers and leading researchers. The 2016 colloquium focused on the topic of secular government, while this year’s event will look at the State’s role as the guarantor of the democratic system. Our aim is to address some contemporary issues (public disenchantment with politics, decreasing voter turnout, the rise in populism) as well as new experiments and new voter expectations that are emerging (citizen juries, participatory democracy, the use of random drawings, etc.).
CEDRE has helped to forge the agenda for this important colloquium by indicating the trends in current research, proposing the names of quality researchers who are well known among their peers but not among the public at large, and bringing in international perspectives through our contacts in Switzerland, Italy, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

PSL: You held a conference during the Thinking Day event organized by the PSL Student Union in April 2016 on the theme “More than just the vote: reinventing democracy.” How do you view the changes we’re seeing in electoral systems among the world’s big democracies?

OC: Yes, I think back very positively on that event. The circumstances at the time made it an especially relevant topic, given the incredible election year both in France and abroad, and there are several observations I could make in that regard.
Obviously we could mention the poorer showing by social democratic and leftist governments, plus Donald Trump’s election and Angela Merkel’s likely victory in September, as well as the failure of the Socialists in France and Spain.
But on a more fundamental level, we’re also seeing a crisis in electoral systems, which are now attracting criticism and even contempt. For example, we have Trump, who was elected with fewer votes than Clinton; Brexit, which has exacerbated tensions between England and Scotland; the French candidates separated by barely a percentage point in the 2017 French presidential election. The distortions that voting systems impose on the general will are becoming more and more acutely apparent, depressing voter turnout and encouraging protest votes against the system; they’re also prompting calls for radical reform or even for replacing elections in whole or in part with a random drawing. All of this demonstrates that majority rule, which we considered self-evident and a foundation of democracy, is in the midst of a profound crisis.
CEDRE is alert to those developments and intends to lend its voice to the discussion as we contemplate new forms of democracy.

PSL: And what is CEDRE working on as this new academic year begins?

OC: We have a busy schedule here at CEDRE at the moment: we’re welcoming new members and new partners, and particularly our first doctoral candidates with the German Historical Institute Paris and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

We have three main initiatives underway:

• Two major colloquia, one with the association of France’s local prefectures, scheduled for September 28 in the Sorbonne’s Grand Amphithéâtre (The State of the Republic), and another with the Universités de Lyon 1 and 2, to be held in November in Lyon (Dedication, Devotion, Commitment: Serving the City).

• A new line-up of publications from CEDRE, including the proceedings from our inaugural colloquium in November 2016, a basic introduction to republican government entitled Cent Mots de la République and the first online scientific editions of classics in republican thought.

• Lastly, and perhaps most important of all, this winter we’ll be launching the CEDRE seminar on the Jourdan campus on the very contemporary topic of demagoguery, with guests from both France and abroad.