How far have the French succeeded in imposing a necessary reduction on the role and power of the state?

Résumé du document

The French state has always occupied a central and essential role and has over the years taken measures to reduce state power. This necessity has to be related to the unprecedented shift in the balance of power, when the Socialists won the elections in 1981. For the first time during the Fifth Republic, the left wing took over and only such a tremendous change might have been powerful enough to question the might of the State. There are two key areas in which the French state has made concerted efforts to take a back seat; the territorial and economic scenes. However, once examined from a closer stance, it is clear that the supposed measures are not as effective as they could be and that the French state is still very much involved and still plays a significant part. Real efforts have been made on the territorial plan towards a better balance between the state and other sources of power through a process of decentralisation and due to globalisation and liberalisation.

Extraits

[...] Companies now benefited from a deregulated market considerably less controlled by the state. From 1986 onwards the French state started to privatise a number of businesses. Along with the empowerment of the financial markets, two important waves of privatisation further weakened the state's influence in the economic domain. In 1986, there was a shift in the majority and the Right came into power. For the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic, most of the right wing supported the process of privatisation as opposed to the decades of strong “economic nationalism” favourable to more and more nationalisations. [...]

[...] For this reason, French Right parties were in favour of nationalisations and strongly refused any transfer of sovereignty from the state to the local authorities. As for the left wing, historically, it has been infused with socialist ideas and therefore emphasised the intervention of the state in every economic sector. In the eighties, socialists converted to the decentralisation path but did not accept any form of withdrawal of the state from the economy whereas the right wing started to support privatisations but still denied local authorities any legitimacy. [...]

[...] However, France as well as many other European countries faces a drastic drop in the active population in comparison to the retiring population. Hence the development of self-funded pension schemes based on either financial or estate holdings or other forms of long term investments. The reduction in the role that the state plays is a direct consequence of this change, as the latter has nothing to do with most of the self-funded pension schemes as opposed to private companies which benefit from this trend. [...]

[...] French citizens are very concerned with equality, and rely on the state to ensure it. Public services are a good example of the French attachment to the state. The conviction public services have to be state- run is very deeply rooted in the mind of most French as it is commonly believed that only the State can ensure equal access to water, electricity and other services. The status of EDF (“Electricité de France”, the French provider of electricity benefiting from a monopoly on production and distribution of electricity) is proof of this constant concern. [...]

[...] French political parties constantly ask for a closer observation of financial markets by the state whenever the latter go down. Historically, the process of decentralisation hardly found any supporters among political parties up until the eighties. Moreover, the recent conversion of both the socialists and the right moderates is neither complete nor fully assumed in terms of their respective history. As far as the right wing is concerned, most of it still defines itself as Gaullist and so it is extremely attached to the prestige of the state. [...]