Originally published in French as Le progrès ne tombe pas du ciel © Libraire Arthème Fayard, 2019 This edition © Polity Press, 2020
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Excerpt from ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon/Lenono Music (GMR)
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ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4143-0
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Amiel, David, author. | Emelien, Ismaël, author.
Title: The new progressivism : a grassroots alternative to the populism of out times / David Amiel, Ismaël Emelien ; translated by Andrew Brown.
Other titles: Progrès ne tombe pas du ciel. English
Description: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references. |
Summary: “The architects of Macron’s success lay down the foundations for a new progressivism to counter the populism of our times”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019050900 (print) | LCCN 2019050901 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509541416 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509541423 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509541430 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Liberalism. | Populism. | Political participation--Social aspects. | Democracy. | Pluralism. Classification: LCC JC574 .A43813 2020 (print) | LCC JC574 (ebook) | DDC 320.51/3--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019050900 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019050901
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No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Manor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, 1624
Acknowledgements
Thank you for reading this book! Do not hesitate to tell us what you thought about it: [email protected]
Thank you to the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, for showing us that politics was a matter of conviction and that a benevolent determination could move mountains. Thank you also for placing in us the confidence of which we hope to be worthy every day.
Thanks to Alexis Kohler for showing us what total commitment in the service of the general interest means. Thank you also for listening patiently to our pleas, even at late hours of the day — absurdly late sometimes.
Thanks to Hanane and Eve, for their proofreading but also for their support, their presence — quite simply, their love.
Thank you to our parents, for (almost) everything.
Thanks to Sophie, our editor and (in spite of that) friend. Thanks to John, who saw it useful to have us translated — and to Andrew, who carried that exhausting task to the end. Thanks to all those who have read one or more of the many successive versions of this book, and whose benevolence has been equalled only by their rigour: Marcel, Thierry, Marie, Hubert, Timothée, Léonore, Luc, Martin, Julien, François S., François T., Simon, Rémi, Ariane, Antoine A., Laurent, Dominique, Sylvain, Shahin, Jean-Francois, Antoine F., Daniel, Quentin.
Thanks to those who ensured that the past decade spent fighting for the ideas contained in this book was, first and foremost, a story of friendship, especially Stanislas, Cédric, Benjamin, Emmanuel, Julien, Sibeth, Quentin, Stéphane, Ludovic, Jean-Marie, Sylvain, Adrien, Nathalie, Alexander, Clément, Philippe.
Thank you to all the campaigners who have already shown that these ideas are worthwhile only if they are implemented, in particular (but not only!) Jean, Didier, Fanny, Clara, Missak, Juliette, Olivier, Thomas, Victor, Vincent, Thibault, Joé, Julien, Valérie, Christian, Grégoire P., Houda, Pacôme, Bensih, Bruno, Audrey, Aurélie, Mathieu, Zineb, Pauline, Marion, Grégoire D., Arnaud, Fatima, Serge, Selen, Mathieu, Marine M., Étienne, Paul-Hugo, Raphaël, Aziz-François, Marielle, Pénélope, Sandra, Marine B., Etienne, Stéphane, Aigline, Mathilde, Tess, Julie, Maëlle, Alexis, Jean, Christophe, Grégoire A., Pierre, Renaud, Léo, Caterina, Guillaume, Déborah, Éléonore, Schoitchi, Caroline, Frédéric, Philippe. Thank you to all those who enabled this legacy to prosper, at the headquarters of La République en Marche! and in all the territories of France. Our apologies to those who will not find their names here — this would have required several dozen more pages!
Introduction
In 2017, Emmanuel Macron was elected President of the French Republic. We were among those who helped to plan his En Marche! movement; we were responsible for the campaign strategy and its programme, and thus we both played a very active part in a political venture that most people viewed as impossible, namely the election of a man who had never run for office and who, a year earlier, had no party, no elected officials, no activists, and no funding. In a country marked by record levels of mistrust, we worked for the election of a man who proclaimed his confidence in the ability of ordinary citizens to return to the path of economic, social and political progress. In a country that had voted ‘no’ in the referendum on the European Constitutional Treaty in 2005, we worked for the election of a man who wore his commitment to the European project on his sleeve. In a country falling prey to populists who, both on the far left and the far right, shared a hatred of elites, we worked for the election of a man who had experience both as a banker and as a senior civil servant.
This election demonstrated one thing: the dice can always be rolled again. This is lucky, since the populists seem to have the wind in their sails worldwide: both in the old democracies (France, Italy, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Austria, Sweden, and others) and in ‘illiberal democracies’ (Hungary, Turkey, perhaps now Brazil?) and authoritarian countries (China, Russia, and most of their allies). So, is Emmanuel Macron’s election an accident of history, a statistical blip together with the election of Donald Trump to the White House, Brexit, the triumph of the Five Star Movement