ABSTRACT
To say that the French left has relied on the apparatus of the nation-state to implement its policies would obviously be a truism, given that the political-administrative system of any state remains central to policy-making, despite the erosion of state power and the changes in how societies are governed. Nuit Debout emerged as an urban social movement in March 2016, following on from mass protests against the French government’s rewriting of employment law that prioritised sectoral agreements and deals within companies over collective bargaining and state regulation and that aimed at a further flexibilisation of labour markets. The notion of sovereignty has always been a fictitious construct, necessary for international relations to enshrine the principle of equal nominal rights of nation-states and of non-interference, and necessary domestically to underpin democracy and its core idea that citizens of a given state can decide independently how they organise their national communit.
