ABSTRACT
During a conference on the 2005 urban violence that erupted in migrant neighborhoods surrounding Paris and quickly spread throughout France, the mayor of the city of Tourco-ing opened a debate on these events by exclaiming, “I fear for the future of Democracy in France.” 1 This statement referred to the systemic socio-economic exclusion of ethnic minorities in French cities, the inflammatory statements made by French Minister of Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy that fanned the flames of discontent, and the imposition of a curfew by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin in response to the violence. In fact, in most of the public and academic discussions of the 2005 urban unrest in France, the analysis focused on different types of “failures” of French democracy.
