Changing France-the Politics that Markets Make

摘要

France-'a charming old museum of industrial fordism and outdated labor regulations?' (p. xiv) Peut-etre. In the last 25 years the country's economic, social and political landscapes have been transformed. The same has happened in other western European countries, where Europeanization and globalization have brought political harmonization and fiercer competition. But how has this played out in France-does l'exception francaise still hold (if indeed it ever did)? So, to the central puzzle: how to understand such dramatic change when most accounts of contemporary France emphasize continuity rooted in Jacobinism and Gaullism? Also, why has the country been struck by such widespread malaise (economic pessimism, lack of political trust, a 'blocked' society)? France is often portrayed as being dominated by inefficient markets, interventionist state and sclerotic civil societies.