euro|topics - Zaki Laïdi

Laïdi, Zaki

4 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Le Temps - Switzerland | 09/01/2008

How Europe sets world-wide standards

The daily has published an article from the Telos agency in which the political scientist Zaki Laïdi analyses the way the EU imposes new norms. "In a globalised world, the dividing lines between the European market and the global market are necessarily becoming more and more blurred. This is for various reasons, the first of which is the fact that, being at once unified, large and attractive, the European market has to fix rules for those who wish to enter it. Another factor supporting the externalisation of European market rules is the considerable hike in European standards in environment matters and consumer protection. Nonethelss, so long as European norms prove the highest in the world - as is testified by the Reach legislation on chemical products - all economic agents find themselves obliged to rise to European standards in order to have a chance of getting in to the European market."

Les Echos - France | 05/02/2007

Zaiki Laïdi condemns the French crusade against globalisation

According to the political scientist Zaki Laïdi, the creation of jobs is mainly related to national factors, even in these times of globalisation. "In the French case, the problem does not come from the fact that we are losing jobs because of globalisation, but because we are not creating enough of them in general. ... Globalisation does destroy jobs. But it also creates a lot more of them. It simply acts as an indicator of our advantages. It tells us where we would benefit from specialising and where we should abandon certain sectors. ... Protectionism can attract votes in the short-term, because it is always easier to explain that we are protecting ourselves when bringing up the draw bridge than when lowering it. But it always ends up destroying more jobs and turning against those who had sworn to keep them. To be courageous is not to favour protectionism; it is on the contrary to high-light the pitfalls in a country where economical ignorance among political and intellectual elites is brandished as heroism."

Le Temps - Switzerland | 23/11/2006

The political rise of Ségolène Royal

The French political scientist Zaki Laïdi and his colleague Gérard Grunberg attempt to explain the rise of Ségolène Royal. They consider that she has understood "that to represent the French, it was necessary first of all to identify with them. In other words, before presenting herself as an eventual Head of State, competent and coldly in control of her agenda, it was necessary to offer the French proof that she could represent them well beyond partisan divides. This ability to personify things is nonetheless new. Ségolène Royal is less a personification of France than of the French. She is subtly establishing her authority by, instead of employing the domineering mode of 'follow me because I'm the best', using the inter-subjective mode of 'follow me, because I identify with you'. Power is no longer being conquered on a principle of authority, but on one of interactivity."

Libération - France | 25/08/2006

Zaki Laïdi calls for modernisation of the French left

"The left will only be able to seriously confront the world of the future by modernising, which is to say, by doing what all the other parties of the European left have done: imagine the world of the 21st century using the tools of the same century," warns Zaki Laïdi, researcher at the Centre for International Studies and Research (CERI) in Paris. "The left must stop demonising globalisation as is its wont, and for a very simple reason. In acting this way, it reinforces among its members and voters the very type of social pessimism and lack of long-term thinking that they rightfully deplore. ... The real challenge here is not to demonise globalisation or, conversely, to minimise its dangers. It is to emphasize, in a systematic way, the opportunities that it creates for everyone. To be of the left is to open up the playing field; it means bringing about social optimism."

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