Political Culture in France and Germany (Rle: German Politics): A Contemporary Perspective by John Gaffney & Eva Kolinsky

Author:John Gaffney & Eva Kolinsky [Gaffney, John & Kolinsky, Eva]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Comparative Politics, World, General, History & Theory
ISBN: 9781317560777
Google: lWrfBQAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 24049147
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1991-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

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Celebrities in Politics: Simone Signoret and Yves Montand

Pamela M. Moores

Political culture, defined as the relationship between civil society and political practice, focuses in a democracy on the interaction between the electorate and their political representatives, and hence on political parties, which rally and organise individuals into collective groups to achieve common aims. Yet there are also single individuals, notable figures, who play a significant part in the shaping of political activity, whilst standing deliberately outside the party system, voicing their views independently. In the context of modern France, one thinks of influential politically committed intellectuals on both the Right and Left, like Barrès, Drieu la Rochelle, Malraux, Nizan, Sartre, Beauvoir, and many others. Since the Dreyfus Affair of 1898, when the term 'intellectuel' was first brought into common use as an independent noun to refer to the writers, artists, students and teachers petitioning in favour of Captain Dreyfus against the establishment (Ory and Sirinelli, 1986), the word has carried controversial connotations, whether used perjoratively, or else to evoke the notion of an elevated vocation or mission. Figures like Sartre and Beauvoir made political protests, and in doing so, raised their voices above party political debate, speaking in the name of superior values, as if symbols of the people's moral conscience, guardians of Truth.

From the number of French intellectuals seduced and disillusioned in turn by fascism or, more commonly, by Stalinism, it is evident that the intellectual has no monopoly of truth. Nonetheless, the audience he or she reaches through publication of writings, through essays, letters, petitions, and press coverage of diverse activities, enables him or her to exercise influence on social, moral and political issues, from outside the bounds of political parties, and have an independent personal impact on the political process.

Where such an influence is perceived, this is not necessanly due to superior intellect or political acumen per se, but may simply be an extension of the prominence and visibility which the individual has achieved through success in his or her own specialist sphere. The novelist, Milan Kundera, has observed that man's lifelong preoccupation is nothing but a struggle to get other people to listen to him: 'Toute la vie de l'homme parmi ses semblables n'est pas autre chose qu'un combat pour s'emparer de l'oreille d'autrui'.1 A famous writer has a head start, but he is not alone in this today. With the growth of the mass media and the cult of star personalities, celebrities who may be much less distinguished intellectually, but have other talents, notably communication skills and personal charisma, also have the opportunity to influence opinion, not necessarily by joining a party or standing as an election candidate, but simply by making public statements on political matters. The famous are more likely to be heeded. Success in one sphere, therefore, facilitates access to and success in another, irrespective of specific credentials. It is in this light that we shall examine the political activities of the film stars Simone Signoret and Yves Montand, her husband from 1951 until her death in 1985.

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