It is not as if the French have ignored the problem of their cities. The very term 'social exclusion' was coined in France in the mid-1990s. Yet last November saw decades of regeneration effort by successive governments go up in flames as a wave of rioting hit the inner suburbs of Paris. Successive governments, from Francois Mitterrand's onwards, pumped hundreds of billions of francs into regenerating housing estates. One of Jacques Chirac's first acts as president was to create tax-free zones to provide companies with incentives to create jobs in the suburbs. In 2004, the current administration launched a plan for social cohesion aimed at tackling unemployment, discrimination and housing problems.
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