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Edited by Pepper D. Culpepper, Peter A. Hall, and Bruno Palier WHEN HE WAS U.S. president, Jimmy Carter famously spoke about the malaise that had befallen the country he led in the 1970s. A new book coedited by a Kennedy School professor brings the word back to its French origin in examining the economic and political malaise that has permeated France since the 1980s. Pepper Culpepper, an associate professor of public policy, coedited Changing France: The Politics that Markets Make and contributes its first chapter, on the country’s political economy since 1985. The book includes an introduction and 11 essays on subjects ranging from corporate governance, the challenges of immigration policy, the European Union’s effect on France, and new developments in the country’s political party system. Maintaining a comparative view with other countries in the EU, the book nonetheless focuses on issues and problems distinct to French society. For one, as stated in the introduction, “The French are now less willing to trust their government and political parties than the citizens of any other European nation.” This dissatisfaction has led to a sizable portion of the electorate supporting far-right or far-left parties and the majority rejecting the new constitution for the EU. Immigration has fueled part of the resentment, with a 70 percent increase in the number of foreign residents in France between 1954 and 1975. A steep rise in African and Arab immigrants has resulted in the country’s having the largest Muslim community in Europe, leading to disputes over assimilation and ethnic discrimination. Immigration has also contributed to increased competition in a shrinking labor market. The book traces economic problems to French policy makers’ raising of industrial subsidies and social benefits in response to a recession in the mid-1970s. This led to an increase in the country’s share of GNP devoted to public expenditures, from 39 percent in 1974 to 52 percent in 1984. “The nation took on an expensive set of new social programs just when it could least afford them, a legacy that would bedevil policymakers for several decades,” according to the book. The longevity of the current population has put pressure on the generous pension system and health care for the elderly, which account for 70 percent of public social spending. In addition, France’s welfare state is structured to devote benefits to specific groups typically funded according to employment status, which fails to provide protection during times of high unemployment or market insecurity. Many French public figures have demonized globalization, blaming it for the loss of jobs to low-wage countries and the encroachment of American values on a society that prides The editors don’t predict the direction France will take, though they say its chances of future prosperity will remain tied to the fortunes of the rest of Europe. For a country that has traditionally stressed its exceptionalism, “In both the domestic and international arenas, France is a nation in search of a new vision.” — LR **** Uneasy Alliance The book arose from a conference that focused on the dramatic ways in which France is changing. Pepper Culpepper has seen those changes firsthand, having lived in the country previously and lecturing there in 2003. During past stays, people on the Metro thanked him for America’s support during World War II. Upon the onset of the Iraq war, however, many French people expressed not only antiwar but also anti-American sentiment. Such hostility between the countries isn’t new, says Culpepper. “Charles de Gaulle used to make American leaders bang their heads,” he says. “But every time the chips have been down, the countries have come together because their values, though expressed in different ways, have many things in common.” For the book, Culpepper says the editors approached the subject in a different way. “It’s really a break with the way France has been treated both by the Americans and by the French, to treat France as such a comparative case,” he says. “It’s useful and easy to compare it with other advanced industrial countries, and we think that was something that intellectually needed doing.”
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