History 172 – Modern France

Pluralising the Republic

Outline

• The decline of the far left

• Pluralising the Republic

Anti-totalitarians, 1970s

• 1968– Far left component (Maoist, Trotskyite) – Libertarian as well– Esprit – Journal with anti-totalitarian slant– Communism less attractive in the wake of

Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago– Still, a highly technocratic state throughout the

1970s, managed by politically appointed énarques– (École nationale de l’Administration)

Giscard

Valéry Giscard D’Estaing (1974-1981)

• 1973 – Oil crisis / recession– Stagflation: contradicted economic theory– Attempts to lower inflation increased unemployment

• Giscard – to the left of most British and American centre-right parties

• Promoted fusion of state-subsidized companies to compete internationally

• Shift to nuclear power– Today, France gets 75% of its power this way

Gradual turn to market economy

• Markets as autonomous forces

• Politics must adapt to those forces, rather than directing them (a retreat from dirigisme)

• France embarked on selective dirigisme: support the strong with state subsidies, allow or force the weak to perish: 70% increase in company bankruptcies after 1974.

Main winners of economic policies

• Large agriculture

• Energy companies

• Telephone/communications

• Train / airlines

Losers

• Small farmers and businesses

• Industrial labour– Unemployment rises– Benefits and retraining: offered only after vigorous

strikes

Mitterrand Years (1981-1994)First victory of Socialists in Fifth Republic

Euphoria upon election – dancing in the streets

Fears that ‘Russian tanks will soon be rolling through the streets of Paris’ (Cold War)

Who was he?

• As student at Sciences Po, active in right-leaning parties in mid 1930s associated with the Croix-de-feu (quasi-fascist group)

• Capture by Germans. Developed left-leaning sympathies in prison camp, which he eventually escaped from

• Joined Vichy government but supported resistance

Who was he?

• Active in parties of the left in 1950s

• Held ministerial positions

• Deeply committed to keeping Algeria French

• Tried to profit from 1968, but people saw through this

Mitterrand - 1970s

• Seen as an opportunist

• Slowly, methodically, cunningly, he pried Communist supporters towards Socialist party

• Came close to winning presidency in 1974

• Won in 1981

Early policies

• Raised minimum wage• 5 week holidays• 39 hour work week• Super tax• Increase of social benefits and employee

rights• At odds with other countries who were

moving headlong into market economics

Reversals

Anti-inflationAusterity

Move towards European economic unionMaastricht Treaty 1992 – free trade zone

Cordial with Thatcher: ‘Eyes of Caligula, mouth of Marilyn Monroe’

Political economy of France since 1980s

• Further move away from dirigisme

• 2000s: Privatizations

• Political effects: Front national (FN) benefits from economic stresses and failure of mainstream parties to alleviate them

Pluralism

Bidonvilles

Aubervilliers, 1970

HLM: public housing initiatives

Bidonvilles

Bidonville, Nanterre

HLM

HLM

Problems

• Isolation from other socio-economic groups

• Undermined republican ‘assimilation’ ideals

• Boredom, unemployment, violence

• Clashes with police, revolts

Veil politics

• 1989 – banned in schools– Left and far-right cametogether on banning them– Attempts to build mosques in 1980s – vehemently

resisted by many French people– Why wear scarves?• Forced or a choice?

– Left finds new agenda: culture rather than class– Algerian Civil War in 1990s: veil=Islam=terrorism

World Cup, 1998

• Banlieue / city boundaries break down for an evening

• Racism defied by victory – Le Pen silent

• Pasqua laws of early 1990s / ‘sans-papiers’ debate– Children of foreign born parents not automatically

given French nationality– Stricter residency rules

French Riots 2005Second generation immigrants

Arab, North African, Blacks

Nearly 3000 arrested

9000 cars destroyed

274 towns affected