Fear of a Yellow Planet

The Gilets Jaunes and the End of the Modern World-System

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12433686
AutoresPeter Wilkins (0000-0002-1509-0091, Brunel University of London, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen26
Número1
Fecha de publicación2020-03-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of World-Systems Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1076-156X • E-ISSN: 1076-156X
EditorialUniversity Library System, University of Pittsburgh (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.5195/jwsr.2020.902
OpenAlexW3011236587
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas34

The emergence of the Gilet Jaunes has seen a section of the popular classes present a significant challenge to the elite-driven ideological frameworks that have dominated since the end of the cold war: neoliberalism and the Clash of Civilisations. What Immanuel Wallerstein calls ‘centrist liberalism’ has been the dominant ideological foundation of the modern world-system since the late nineteenth century. Its current form, neoliberalism, is in crisis across the core of the world-system, intensified following the Great Recession of 2008. This has invited new challenges from revived and reconstituted political formations of both right and left. Populist movements are a part of this process of ideological reconstitution, and the Gilets Jaunes are an important example of progressive populism calling for social and economic justice. What was triggered by a protest directed at increased fuel taxes rapidly escalated into a much broader protest movement whose influence has spread beyond French borders. Importantly, the Gilet Jaunes have brought a layer of the French working-classes into the public realm in dramatic fashion, raising issues such as equality, public welfare, and participatory and direct democracy that challenge neo-liberal norms. The agenda that has emerged from the Gilet Jaunes illustrates the way in which a working-class left is being reconstituted in opposition to forces of the political right. The article addresses three main questions: Why have the Gilet Jaunes emerged? Who makes up these protests? What do they mean

Democracy · Elite · Ideology · Liberalism · Neoliberalism (international relations · Opposition (politics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Populism · Sociology · Elite Sociology and Global Capitalism · Law · Political Economy and Marxism · World Systems and Global Transformations