Nationalism or Nationism?: Pierre-André Taguieff and the Defense of the French Republic

This article examines the political ideas of Pierre-André Taguieff, one of France’s leading republican intellectuals. Taguieff has had a distinguished academic career as a historian of ideas, philosopher, and political analyst. Author of more than twenty books, he is frequently interviewed, and widely quoted, in the media. He has written important works on topics such as racism and antiracism, antisemitism, populism, the idea of progress, the integration of ethnic minorities, and the continuing validity of the republican model of the nation-state. Thematically, his work has shown strong elements of continuity, but there has been organic development as Taguieff has brought related topics into play to elaborate or move beyond those he has examined previously. The main axis of his writing is analytical. He traces the history of political concepts and explores their contemporary variants. However, because his work also bears the stamp of his ideological commitments, Taguieff engages with current controversies and proposes remedies to the political problems that he examines, although he does this more often in terms of general principles than of specific policy proposals. The article has two parts. The first of these outlines the overall shape and intellectual style of Taguieff’s work. The second part takes a more critical approach, arguing that Taguieff’s increasingly defensive positions on a range of domestic and international issues—coupled with a tendency to take refuge in polemics against the political correctness and intellectual conformism of the age—threaten to swamp the more open, constructive, and innovative dimensions of his political thought.