Charles Devellennes

The appearance of parliamentary democracy The vote in favour of the social security budget in the National Assembly yesterday appears as a welcome victory for parliamentary democracy.

The French National Assembly passed the social security budget bill yesterday - against the odds. I reflect on what this means for the future of parliamentary democracy in France here: open.substack.com/pub/charlesd...

Two of my books, the Macron Regime and the Gilets Jaunes and the New Social Contract, are on sale this month on the Bristol University Press website (£12.50 and £10). Use the code BUP11 for a 50% discount: bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/results?Sear...

The Centrist Blackmail No Longer Works On September 8th, François Bayrou became the first Prime Minister to have lost a confidence vote during the Fifth Republic. His demise is a clear indication that the centrist project lacks the imagina...

I wrote a piece for Damage Magazine on why Bayrou's centrist gamble did not succeed. It lacked a fundamental ingredient of politics: imagination; and it lacked the ability to convince the French people to make this vision happen. You can read the full text here: damagemag.com/2025/09/17/t...

Bye Bayrou As Emmanuel Macron enters his ninth year in office, the fourth prime minister of his troubled second mandate is about to lose his post.

As the holidays come to an end, I reflect on the meaning of the vacances for the French - and say "bye-bye Bayrou" after he committed political harakiri: charlesdevellennes.substack.com/p/bye-bayrou

How France Chokes Opposition Parties On July 9, 2025, 20 armed French police raided the offices of the Rassemblement National (RN), France’s far right party. Two judges had opened a case against the party a year before, after receiving a...

I have a piece in Compact Magazine on the raids against RN offices last week, but also more widely on opposition politics in France. The dangers of Bonapartism: www.compactmag.com/article/how-...

Job Vacancy at the University of Nottingham: Research Fellow (Multiple positions, fixed term) We are now recruiting 2 full time Research Fellows to work with Stephen Farrall and colleagues at Warwick (Emily Gray) and Queen Mary College, University of London (Maria Grasso) on their research int...

JOBS! Two post-doctoral Research Fellowships with this Leverhulme-funded project on 'the impacts of New Labour on the lives and life-courses of those born around the year 2000'. I'm on the steering committee, and it's going to be great: jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

Snapshots: Grief, Extended Reality, Hope As our emotions are triggered and compromised in a changing world, what are the indications for our freedom?

I have a short piece on hope as part of a series on emotions and freedom in the Green European Journal you can read here: www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/snapshots-gr...

📣 Come join us! 📣 A two-year postdoc in Enlightenment Studies @voltaire.ox.ac.uk and Oxford's lively community of researchers working on the long 18thC @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social, Modern Languages, and beyond. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru... Applications welcome by 30 May.

Positive atheism reviewed A short response to Sciuto

My Positive Atheism book was reviewed recently by Ruggero Sciuto in French Studies. I wrote a short reply to the review, along with other thoughts, here: open.substack.com/pub/charlesd...

Important read on the political reach of the French oligarchy

Speaking tomorrow at this conference in Vercelli on ‘Diderot in Tahiti’.

Le Pen, ineligibility, and the problem of democracy For years Marine Le Pen was positioning herself as the ‘Holy-than-Thou’ politician.

I wrote a short piece about Le Pen’s ineligibility and the problem of democracy here: open.substack.com/pub/charlesd...

I’ve taught Diderot’s Jacques the fatalist - though the narrator insists it’s not a novel. A great work on the subversion of social roles in the Enlightenment.

My book, ‘The Gilets Jaunes and the New Social Contract’, is now available in Korean! With a new preface for the translation. Thrilled to have received my copy, with a cracking new cover. @brisunipress.bsky.social

Détails de l'événement - musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac Arts et Civilisations d’Afrique, d’Asie, d’Océanie et des Amériques | Expositions, Spectacles, Concerts, Colloques, Conférences et Université Populaire. Du Niger au Burkina Faso en passant par le Mali, des juntes ont pris le pouvoir ces dernières années (2020, 2022, 2023) en Afrique de l’Ouest.

Parisiennes, Parisiens, un rappel pour vous. 20 mars, 19h30, Musée du Quai Branly, pour parler de la poussée souverainiste en Afrique de l'Ouest

Hit the nail on the head. A perverse incentives structure that needs to go.

The UK’s academic recession is in full swing This university crisis is a grim scrabble for numbers

NEW from me in the FT today... The UK's university 'system' is now in freefall. How on Earth did the disaster unfold? Read all about it: www.ft.com/content/0ec7...

This is a sad day for democracy. That one must defend the right of everyone to stand up for their beliefs, however distasteful we might find them, is a fundamental principle worth preserving. Democracy is stronger than its liberal critics allow.

We're hiring a Fellow in Political Theory! @lsegovernment.bsky.social : jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Marx on Trump’s Abuses of Power Karl Marx saw how presidential systems with strong executives threatened to eclipse the democratic power of the legislature.

Timely analysis from Corey Robin in @jacobinmag.bsky.social on the dangers of presidential power (kindly drawing on my book) jacobin.com/2025/02/marx...

Will yet another abuse scandal in the Catholic Church be Bayrou’s downfall? On post-truth and the hypocrisy of laïcité

Bayrou is accused of lying to MPs over a sexual scandal in his local Catholic school. What does this mean for laïcité and post-truth? I explore the latest here: open.substack.com/pub/charlesd...

I will be in Sciences Po Lille as professeur invité on the following three Mondays - 24/2, 3/3 and 10/3. If you're in Lille and want to grab a coffee, let me know!