
France’s Student Revolt Exposes a State That Cannot Provide but Can Police
Over 5,000 arrests in three weeks reveal a republic quicker to discipline teenagers than to teach them.
Author profile

Baris Cayli Messina is Associate Professor at the University of Lincoln, Editor-in-Chief of the International Social Science Journal (UNESCO/Wiley) and Editor of Sociology Compass. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His books include Violence and Militants (2019), A Slow Revolution (2027), The Autocrat's Playbook (2027) and Queer under Siege (2027).

Over 5,000 arrests in three weeks reveal a republic quicker to discipline teenagers than to teach them.

Chronic uncertainty does not mobilise democratic publics — it paralyses them, and that paralysis is itself a tool of power.