Articles by Alistair Cole

May 3, 2022

Macron’s re-election and the continuing demise of the French Fifth Republic

Alistair Cole

Incumbent French President Macron has been re-elected for a second five-year term. This is not a simple success story, Alistair Cole argues. The election revealed disturbing trends in French democracy.

Sarkozy’s wayward journey… to prison?

Alistair Cole

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of corruption and misuse of influence. Alistair Cole traces Sarkozy’s misfortunes in part to his personal political style, but also, more profoundly, to a broader move towards transparency that has pitted judges against politicians

Alistair Cole

Professor of Politics and Head of the Department of Government and International Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University

Alistair has worked for over 35 years in the field of European and comparative politics and governance. This blog entry reflects a longstanding interest in French politics.

Major of the 1980 Government and History promotion at London School of Economics (1st, awarded the Bassett Prize for Political Science), he completed his DPhil at Oxford University in 1986.

He has been full professor in three distinct systems (Cardiff University, UK: 1999–2014; Sciences Po Lyon, France 2015–2019 and Hong Kong Baptist University since August 2019).

He is author or editor of 24 books, 68 articles, and 60+ book chapters.

Alistair has been awarded several prizes, and has been a fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences since 2011.

With Helen Drake, Sophie Meunier and Vincent Tiberj as co-editors, he recently published Developments in French Politics 6 (Macmillan International, 2021).

Alistair is the Author of Emmanuel Macron and the Two Years that Changed France (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019)

Follow him on Twitter @cole_alistair

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