In December 2011, French deputies voted to reaffirm the country’s abolitionist position on prostitution. This paper seeks to explain how contrasting ideas and interests came to overcome contention and coalesce. Drawing from constructivist and institutional policy theory, it argues that, since its adoption, the ambiguous understanding of the ultimate aims of abolitionism has allowed the regime to foster a broad support base. This is because ambiguity serves to facilitate collective action by enabling political actors to draw together otherwise disparate interests around broad goals. The result is an enduring policy regime capable of housing disparate and divergent policy ideas. Presenting evidence from the preliminary process tracing of the symbolic December 6th vote and from interviews with key policy actors, this paper posits that, with regards to the trajectory of contemporary French prostitution policy, ambiguity is a space for strategic action and creativity and, as a result, is often jealously preserved.
