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| The
French society (1) : politics, .... |
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See also :
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Some facts about politics in France
- According to its constitution
(Article 1) "La France est une république indivisible,
laïque, démocratique et sociale" (France
is a republic, indivisible, secular, democratic and social).
- In France, unlike the USA, the
majority of national politicians are civil
servants (often high-ranking)
; the President, the majority of the cabinet members and a very
large number of parliament members graduated from the same prestigious
school : Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA).
In 2002, it was considered very unusual when the Prime Minister
did not. It is not exaggerated to say that they are often cut
off from real life : read about the 2005
strikes.
- The major
national parties are
: PS (Socialist Party), UMP (Neo-Gaullist), UDF (Christian Democrat),
each of them counting between 15 and 25% of the votes, FN (Extreme
Right National Front), around 10%, and various others around
5% (Communist, Ecologists,
Extreme-Left, including CNPT Chasse-Pêche-Nature et Tradition,
the party of people who oppose European regulation on hunting
etc...).
- France has the highest number of local authorities in Europe (more than 37,000, not including the
structures they form between themselves) and therefore has a
very active local political life with more than 500,000 elected
officials. Of course, local communities are small and therefore
the political system is very centralized with a strong central
state but one can say that the local authority and its city council
are the core of French democracy. In a city or a village, whatever
its size, the mayor is always the most important political figure.
- Women
are heavily under-represented in French political life (maybe
this why it is so often ridiculous...) : see comparative
figures.
- The French love politics and
they believe that the first thing you must do in a democracy
is to vote : voter participation is very high (almost 86% in the 2007
presidential election)
and they are shocked by the low figure in the USA. They believe
in what old Pericles said : "a citizen who is not involved
in politics is not a quiet citzen, he is a useless citizen"
! Elections always take place on Sundays.
- More to come
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- The French are very fond of national politics : if you watch the Evening News on a national
TV channel (at 8 p.m.), you will be surprised by the number of
reports and interviews. Read about the 2007 Presidential
campaign.
- Politics is a fight and when you win, you win everything
: you are on one side or the other and non-partisan votes do
not exist ; "checks and balances" has no translation
in French. See more about the reasons why the French do
not like change and prefer revolutions.
 (credit)
- See an interesting blog
by an US academic about French politics.
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| Main issue today : the political tradition in France (where
people like general ideas and adore conflicts) is challenged
by European homogenization of political life : like other European
countries, the French are trying to keep their specificity but
the growing European power reduces their capacity to develop
a specific policy (foreign policy, taxes, economic regulation,
...). See the reasons to vote Yes/No to the 2005 referendum about
the
European Constitution. |
Strange (for Americans) concepts in French politics
- Amnesty : in France,
the president can pardon any offense (droit de grâce),
as the kings could do : he uses it very rarely on a case by case
basis but it is a tradition that a new-elected president pardons
a whole set of offences, from parking tickets to prison ; one
of his first decisions is to propose to the Parliament a law
to establish which offences will be automatically pardoned, fines
forgotten and prisoners released... In 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy,
who said in his campaign that he was against it, was the first
president to break with this "tradition".
- ATTAC is an association
which was founded in the 1990s to promote the idea of a global
tax on financial transactions (" Tobin Tax "). It has
around 20,000 members and is quite influential among high-school
teachers and more generally " altermondialiste
" militants. Its members are strongly against market economy
and anti-American. Its vice-president is Susan George, an American
academic living in France.
- Avantages acquis (irrevocable
benefits) : a classical issue in labor disputes and political
debates ; once any kind of advantage has been granted, it is
considered unthinkable to suppress it, whatever the circumstances
and the situation ; reducing salaries or increasing labor time
may happen but is extremely rare in France and it raises huge
controversies ; there is almost no example of workers accepting
cuts in wages and unions refuse to sign any agreement of this
kind : they prefer unemployment and the protection of the State.
See what happened when the government decided to suppress the
Monday Pentacost
holiday to fund a social program. See a French paycheck
and read my personal opinion about the 35-hour
week.
- Cohabitation is the situation in which the President
must appoint a prime Minister who does not belong to his political
side because the majority has changed. It is possible within
the constitution but it is much too frequent (Mitterrand / Chirac,
Mitterrand / Balladur, Chirac / Jospin,..) and it weakens the
French governments (which do not need this additional contradiction).
A strong President should dissolve the National Assembly or resign
(as de Gaulle did).
- Cumul des mandats (plurality of mandates) : the number
of political mandates that can be held at the same time is always
a surprise to foreign observers. All members of the Parliament
(deputies or senators) are also mayor, president of a region
or of a "département" (county). The French consider
that you cannot be a good law-maker if you don't know the real
life and you cannot be a good local politician if you don't have
friends in Paris.
- Droite
et Gauche (Left and Right) : the French adore ideological
disputes and the concept of Right versus Left means a lot to
them ; a Right wing government would not survive the accusation
of being driven by values from the Left and conversely. In the
USA, one could say that the right-wing considers itself entitled
to say what is good/right and what is bad/wrong ; in France this
could apply to the left-wing. A partial explanation could be
that in France, for moral standards, the equivalent of religion
(as in the US) is the socialist philosophy. This is certainly
a little exaggerated but possibly not groundless. Read an excellent
book by Ronald Tiersky and
visit the section on attitudes) and
beware of "faux-amis" : in French a "libéral"
is someone who is for free enterprise and market economy and
the "radical socialiste" party is a center-right
political party.
- Elections : some technical aspects make French elections
impossible to understand from abroad : among them "elections
à deux tours", elections at different levels
which give the impression that the country is constantly in a
political campaign (élections municipales for mayors
and city councils, élections départementales
for county representatives, élections régionales
for regional representatives, élections législatives
for deputies, élections sénatoriales for
senators, élections européennes for the
European parliament, élections présidentielles),
"cohabitation" (when the president must
appoint a government with totally opposed ideas), "cumul
des mandats" (the same person can have up to three
of the above-mentioned mandates, for instance député-maire
or conseiller régional-député européen,
etc). Read an article by Harriet Welty about how the French
view the American voting system and a Paris Diary page about
the 2005 referendum
on the European Constitution.
- Francophonie
: France is persistently
trying to structure an international organisation around the
50 countries or so where French is the first language, mostly
in Africa ; American diplomacy hates everything about this ;
the colonial past is still very present in France and the relations
with former colonies are close ; the French had a vision of colonization
which was very different for instance from the British's ; Mort
Rosenblum, former AP bureau chief in Paris, wrote a very clear-sighted
book about it ("Mission
to Civilize") ; read about the French and their language and see figures about overseas
territories.
- Gaullisme : the modern form of an old tradition
in French political life : a powerful state, a republican but
strong leader and a rather nationalist foreign policy ; an archaic
form is " bonapartisme " which still exists (in Corsica
!) ; it is somehow linked with a deeply rooted vision of political
life called " jacobinisme " which dates back to the
French Revolution (with Robespierre), representing the centralizing
vision as opposed to the decentralized idea of France, "
Girondisme ". Read more about de
Gaulle.
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- Laïcité (secularism) : in France, you do
not mix religion and society : it is a private domain and no
candidate for any public function would ever mention his religious
belief, the name of God, etc ; it is absolutely unthinkable that
a French president would express his religious beliefs the way
US presidents do (particularly George W. Bush) ; at social occasions
(dinner party, etc..), it would be considered very rude to start
a discussion about God and religion, unless a very light and
careful one ; the role of the church in social life is extremely
limited compared to the U.S.A. Globally speaking, France is a
country much less religious
than the USA which does not mean that people have no religious
beliefs, but they are strictly a personal
choice. "Laïcité" does not mean that
the state is against religion, but it means that it must guarantee
that all religious beliefs are treated equally, including having
no religious belief. An illustration of that is the Sunday morning
program on France-2 (state-owned TV channel, around 30% of total
viewers) : between 8:30 am and 12h30, there is a mass and various
programs by all religions and philosophicalr opinions (protestant,
islam, jewish,
free masons, atheist,
you name it...). One can say that "laïcité"
is a value which shared by a huge majority of the French, whatever
their religion. This is why the Islamic
veil in school caused an almost unanimous scandal. The milestone
is the 1905-law of separation of church and state : since that
date, all religious buildings belong to the local authorities
or to the state (which must maintain them), no member of the
clergy can be appointed and paid by public funds (except in Alsace,
where the system is the German system), etc... These principles
are largely agreed upon in the French society (see a poll)
but many Americans strongly disagree with them. Even French Muslims
are progressively absorbing the secular ways of their countrymen
: see a European
comparative study. As an example of the permanent monitoring
of "laïcité" by French governments, one
could mention the creation (Decree March 25, 2007) of an "Observatoire
de la Laïcité", a permanent commission including
members of the Parliament and highlty respected personnalities,
which will report to the Prime Minister and monitor the "respect
of secularism in public services". More about religion
and compared situations in Europe.
Read a letter about freedom in schools
and my personal
view about it.
- "Modèle
social français" : everybody on the Left and many people
on the Right are very attached to what they call the French "modèle
social" (social model) ; for them, it means free or moderately
priced "services publics" (see below) such as health
and education, a higher compensation
for unemployed people, a minimum income for all (RMI), etc...
Although very questionable now, this issue was decisive in the
2005 referendum : millions voted NO to protect the French society
against what they considered a threat to the "modèle
social" by "the heartless Anglo-Saxon market economy".
- Never-a-loser :
in France, you can run and be defeated several times and run
again, and be elected when you are 65 or much more. In 2005,
a 50-year-old voter has never voted in a presidential election
in which Jacques Chirac was NOT a candidate (he became a member
of the government for the first time in 1967). You can also be
re-elected after having been sentenced for corruption!
- "Service
Public ": when a Frenchman says he/she wants to
defend the "Service Public" (public services), he/she
has said everything. For him, it means that a state-owned and/or
state-run service will not try to maximize profit but to maximize
the quantity or the quality of service provided: therefore, when
RATP workers (the Paris transit system) go on strike to demand
to lower the age of retirement (already 50!), Parisians who must
walk to their work support them in spite of the hassle! In France,
it is a very esteemed position to be a "fonctionnaire".
Still, it is a fact that the quality of " Services
Publics " in France is much higher than in the USA (train,
urban transit, etc). For the French, the state-owned TV channels
"service public" are expected to be better, less vulgar,
less devoted only to entertainment and commercials (and, indeed,
they are!).
- Trotskisme : a surprisingly strong political vision in extreme-left
political life with 10% of votes with 3 different candidates,
in the 2002 presidential election (Lutte
Ouvrière, Ligue
Communiste Révolutionnaire, Parti des Travailleurs)
; since the Socialist Party came back to power with François
Mitterrand in the 1980s, the extreme left is progressing and
represents the refusal of any compromise with the existing society.
Having been persecuted by Stalin gives theses organizations a
sort of label of honorability and as they refuse to participate
to any democratic local or national power nobody can reproach
them to have betrayed the ideal perspective of the glorious Proletarian
Revolution. France is the only democratic country with this kind
of movements alive and well.
- More to come
- See :
|
| DID YOU KNOW THAT.... Stanley Hoffmann
has observed that France and the United States are both nations
that see themselves as having a universalizing, civilizing
mission and this is one the reasons of their rivalry (quoted
by Timothy Garton Ash in an excellent article, Anti-Europeanism
in America, The New York Review, Feb. 13, 2003). Mort Rosenblum
gives a very good picture of this largely shared French vision
in "Mission
to Civilize"
. |
Labor unions,
strikes and strikers
|
Strikes and strikers...
- Striking and demonstrating are
strong local traditions in France. There are strikes for many
reasons (local, national, sectorial) but they are, in fact, targeted
against the State to press it to do something to address a problem.
The French do not value consensus and do not negociate unless
under pressure : the classical sequence is to go on strike first
and then negociate...
- Most of the strikes concern
state-owned companies (train, urban transit, utilities, hospitals,
air controllers, etc). Sometimes, they are just ritual: you can
expect a transport strike every year in fall. They also go
on strike "on behalf" of the other categories :
in Spring 2003, there were huge transport strikes, when the transport
was not concerned by the Government's project on retirement age.
- Actually, the total number of
strike days is low
in France (and below the European average : 37 compared to 43
days/1000 workers, see detailed
figures) but they concern mostly the transport sector ; the
French tolerate them surprisingly well and, to some extent, they
are considered by many as a vicarious way of going on strike.
- The proportion of workers who
are member of a labor union
is the lowest in Europe.
- A typical (non transport) strike
is the Summer 2003 strike of the " intermittents du spectacles
". It concerns all the categories which contribute to show
business : technicians, musicians, actors, etc : unhappy with
the recent re-renegotiation of their labor contract, they forced
cities to cancel most Summer festivals all over the country;
frustrated tourists then complained to the cities, who in turn
demanded the State to intervene in this labor dispute !
- A few examples :
- The strike of students against
a C.P.E. (a new job contract aimed at helping young people to
get their first job) : see a tentative
explanation of this typical French social crisis.
- See recent
examples of typically French strikes (fishermen blocking
harbors, electricity workers cutting power to hundreds of government
officials' homes) and read about strikes in Paris
Diary. See an impressive list
of strikes and demonstrations taking place at any time in
France (in this example : Spring 2005).
- In October 2004, the French
Railway Company (SNCF) and the six major unions signed an agreement
which is considered an major progress in labor relations : unions
agreed that they would not go on strike BEFORE having started
a discussion (instead of the traditional strategy : "first
strike then negotiation"). Looks strange, doesn't it ?
- Another surprising fact : almost
always, at least in the public sector, after a strike, part of
the settlement agreement concerns the payment of salary for
the days of strike, which are very often actually paid, at
least partly. In 2003, the government refused to pay after several
weeks of national strike by the teachers. It was the first time
and it hit severely the strikers who did not expect such a tough
ending.
- More to come....
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The situation of labor unions
in France gives a good idea of how " blocked " the
French society is :
- They are weak : the %
of workers belonging to a union is below 10%, one of the lowest
% in Europe and they are split between several rival organizations
; they are extremely weak in the private sector and relatively
strong in the public sector (see more
details)
- They are conservative
: the master concept is "avantages
acquis", especially in the public sector (see about
retirement and the
difference with the private sector)
- They are not efficient :
they do not try to cooperate between themselves to obtain better
results : for corporations, they are easy to cope with
- They are irresponsible
and would not, at any price, give up a demonstration or a strike,
whatever their economic or political impact : three recent examples
are :
- in May 2006 : the "Syndicat
des Travailleurs Corses" and Syndicat Force Ouvrière
(FO) blocked the two gazoline depots of Corsica for 5
weeks because the delivery people of the newspaper Nice-matin
could not reach an agreement on salaries with their company.
No way to buy gas on the island...
- in 2003, Marseille was
competing with Valencia for the organization of the America Cup
(sailing) : during the visit of the Committee in charge of designating
the best site, there was a huge strike of garbage collectors
with piles of trash and rats running in the streets : unions
refused to stop the strike. Marseille is by far the dirtiest city
in France, with garbage bags everywhere on the streets, waste
papers flying around, etc It is famous for the constant strikes
of the employees of the city's garbage collection service. These
employees enjoy a unique privilege in their job contract, the
" fini-parti " (literally : " done-gone ")
: as soon as their job is finished, they can go back home (or
to their more lucrative undeclared job). I saw a subject on national
TV with a hidden camera showing a garbage truck racing through
the streets, the team throwing garbage in it (half of it ending
on the pavement) and finishing their shift in two hours (instead
of six). When you talk about that to a "Marseillais",
he/she sighs and says " That's the way it is ....".
- in March 2005, when the Commission
of Evaluation of the International Olympic Committee visited
the 5 candidate cities, a major public transport strike was planned
in Paris : one organization (CFDT) proposed to postpone
it and all the others refusedi
- n September 2005 : Corsica
was blocked and a
ferry hijacked to oppose the privatization of SNCM, the bankruped
ferry company. Read Paris
Diary about it.
- It is a largely shared view,
including in business circles, that the French society would
benefit from stronger and more responsible labor unions.
- More to come...
Some original forms of strike
:
- In March 2006, Jean Lassalle,
a deputy from the mountainous Pyrénées region,
went on a five-week hunger strike in the main hall of the
National Assembly because the Japanese group Toyal, the only
employer in his valley, was planning to move its plant to Lacq
(50 miles away). Although quite controversial, this strike proved
successful : the government heavily subsidized Toyal to maintain
the plant in this remote valley.
- More to come...
|
| DID
YOU KNOW THAT.....? In France, you can go on strike for free
! After the negociation that ends each strike, one of the labor's
demand is always the full payment of salaries for the days of
strike. It is generally accepted, at least partly, and almost
always totally in the public sector. In Spring 2003, there were
huge strikes of teachers (several weeks) against the decision
to set at the same level the number of years of work which qualify
for a full pension in the public sector (then 37,5 years) and
in the private sector (40 years) : the government did not change
its project and it was considered an unprecedented and shameful
decision when it decided to pay only a minor part of the salary
for non-worked days. For the first time, teachers, who go on
strike several times a year, had lost income. |
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To more about French
society
To French attitudes,
French values,
French issues
To religion
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Harriet Welty
Rochefort writes articles and books about France and the French.
Order her books :
- "French Toast, An American in Paris
Celebrates The Maddening Mysteries of the French", St.Martin's Press,
New York, 1999
- "French Fried, The Culinary Capers
of An American in Paris", St.Martin's Press, New York, 2001
More on Harriet's books (excerpts, upcoming
events, testimonials, etc..)
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