France has recently become the center of international attention as it struggles with itself to solve a growing problem: the increasing distance between elected politicians and the electorate.
With its ambitious new labor law for France's young citizens, proposed by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, the French government has desperately been trying to implement new liberal measures that would bring France more in line with the European trend toward liberal policies. But the French people have retaliated with one of the most impressive uprisings that France has seen since the establishment of its fifth republic in 1958.
The main problem with France is that its policies do not reflect an understanding of the true ideals of capitalism and globalization. In a recent January survey referenced by the Financial Times, of 22 countries, France was the only one that disagreed with the premise that the best economic system is the "free-market economy."
To the French, this term has negative connotations, but according to the Economist, the citizenry does not recognize its own hostility to the "free market system, which has made France the world's fifth richest country and has generated many first-rate French companies."
This is not to claim that global capitalism is the ultimate solution to France's problems, but liberal changes such as those implemented and supported by Tony Blair appear to be the best way to create and spread prosperity in a struggling nation.
This potential shift towards liberal policies has, in effect, been one of the key political issues discussed in institutions of higher learning in France and Germany since the rejection of the European Constitution. Nevertheless, France is currently struggling to make such a shift through the new labor law, known as the CPE.
The implementation of this law has aroused much controversy in French society. The French are known to spark strikes whenever they are given the opportunity; yet the severity of the recent unrest suggests a problem that is more distressing than a new labor law.
According to the International Herald Tribune, a French high school teacher, Katrin Benhold, believes that French students are taught to "often think of companies, especially multinationals, as a place of constant conflict between employees and management." That is, they see companies and the market as entities that are not be trusted.
Benhold makes another good observation when she claims that in the French vision of economics, the invisible hand is the state, whose role is to protect workers from companies and control economic growth and public spending.
Herein lies the problem. The French people depend on their government to preserve the rights that previous generations have enjoyed, but, unfortunately for them, the political decision process has a different agenda than the people.
While the people want to preserve their traditional culture and benefit from the government's social 'babysitting,' the political leaders are well aware that they cannot base their decisions solely on a national scale. Politicians must now deal with the European Union and its liberal agenda.
The French elite, meanwhile, understand that if they want to grow prosperous, they have to adopt the Anglo-Saxon approach, which is frowned upon in French society. But because its elite cannot convey this urgency to the common man, France is regressing as a leading figure in EU politics.
As a matter of fact, under the presidency of Jacques Chirac, the numbers are rather discouraging: French unemployment has dropped below eight percent, France's wealth per capita has been overtaken by both Britain's and Ireland's, and its public debt has risen from 55 percent of the GDP to 66 percent.
France should not reflect long on this new labor law while more important issues are at hand. The fifth republic, as it stands, is running France into the ground and decimating its credibility among its European counterparts.
But reform is easier said then done. France needs a new leadership that will be able to convey a more positive image of globalization and enact new legislative measures that embrace the liberal changes that are needed to bring France's economy back to prosperity.
Some find hope in the future presidential candidate, Nicholas Sarkozy. His affiliation with the current government, however, might be harmful to his political ambitions.
In reality, one can only sit back and be amused by the fact that the EU is asking France, a founding member, to change the French agenda in order to maintain French eminence.
Clearly, France is facing a huge dilemma and the hopes for it to revive its economy in the current state of affairs look grim. Vive la revolution!
