Europe as a missed opportunity : Looking backwards to modernity in France

International audienceIf Europe has the potential to be a new step towards modernity, the French route to European integration seems to have missed much of this opportunity. French public debate on Europe, both in the past and more recently, has rarely made explicit reference to a 'European modernity', nor can this debate be connected to the notion of modernity as defined in recent theoretical approaches. French debate on Europe allows little room for self-reflexivity and discussion of different conceptions of the European future; the issues are simply reduced to a single low-salience cleavage - being "pro" or "anti" the EU. In spite of the results of European referendums and the decreasing turn-out in European elections, the EU has been widely accepted by French citizens, but it has been accepted passively. This missed opportunity is the result of many factors. The French route to modernity involved a national identity framed by the idea of France as one of the inventors of modernity itself, and by the vision a political community with the mission to disseminate universalistic values (inherited from the French Revolution) throughout the world. Hence, France's relationship to modernity has become backward-looking. French actors remain caught in this historical vision of modernity and cannot seem to imagine Europe offering a new one. Consequently, Europe appears to be a future imposed upon citizens without sufficient discussion or interpretation