Race Politics in Britain and France
Ideas and Policymaking since the 1960s

This book provides the first detailed historical exploration of race policy development in Britain and France.

Erik Bleich (Author)

9780521009539, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 May 2003

246 pages, 6 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.342 kg

'… a well-written empirical analysis that usefully emphasises the power of beliefs and ideas in policy-making …' Political Studies Review

Britain and France have developed substantially different policies to manage racial tensions since the 1960s, in spite of having similar numbers of post-war ethnic minority immigrants. This book provides the first detailed historical exploration of race policy development in these two countries. In this path-breaking work, Bleich argues against common wisdom that attributes policy outcomes to the role of powerful interest groups or to the constraints of existing institutions, instead emphasizing the importance of frames as widely-held ideas that propelled policymaking in different directions. British policymakers' framing of race and racism principally in North American terms of color discrimination encouraged them to import many policies from across the Atlantic. For decades after WWII, by contrast, French policy leaders framed racism in terms influenced largely by their Vichy past, which encouraged policies designed primarily to counter hate speech while avoiding the recognition of race found across the English Channel.

1. Introduction
2. Perspectives on comparative public policymaking: the place of frames
3. The birth of British race institutions: 1945 to the 1965 race relations act
4. Round two: 1965 to the 1968 race relations Act
5. From 1968 to the 1976 race relations act and beyond
6. The origins of French anti-racism institutions: 1945 to the 1972 law
7. The struggle continued: anti-racism from 1972 to the 1990 Gayssot law and beyond
8. Race frames and race policymaking in Britain and France
9. Race, racism and integration in Europe: recent developments, options and trade-offs.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Politics & government [JP], Sociology & anthropology [JH], Ethnic studies [JFSL], Social discrimination & inequality [JFFJ]