French exceptionalism and the Sarkozy presidency

In this volume the notion of French exception has been defined both as a set of politically loaded discourses as well as an analytical tool that can be used to decipher specific socio-economic, political and cultural issues that form what is now commonly referred to as the French model. That some political and electoral rewards can be gained in presenting the French model as exceptional, either because of its virtues or its archaism is clear enough. That this ‘French model’ actually remains transfixed into a parody of its dirigiste, Jacobin or republican self as if it were immune to global, European and domestic pressures, has amply been questioned in this volume. In some respect, France may have changed more rapidly than the discourses about France. Whether such cumulative changes amount to a rupture with the French model and whether such a rupture lead to the normalisation of France – the end of the French exception – are two questions that this concluding chapter seeks to address.