The States Will to Survive and the Discontent of its Citizens: A Reading of Domestic French Politics

THE STATES WILL TO SURVIVE AND_ THE DISCONTENT OF ITS CITIZENS: A READING OF DOMESTIC FRENCH POLITICS By Patrick McCarthy A heMaastrichtreferendumwasbutone manifestationofapolitical malaise that has plagued France in recent years. Forty-nine percent ofthe electorate voted against a treaty considered, rightly or wrongly, to be the greatest achievement ofPresidentMitterrand's second term. Mitterrand's standing in thepollshadbeenlowsincetheGulfWar. AtthetimehesignedtheMaastricht agreement in December 1991 he had an approval rating ofthirty-one percent, his worst since he took office in 1981. Other political elites were also struggling. InthereferendumJacquesChirachadthe majorityofhisparty,the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR), against him, while his ally, the Union pourla Démocratie Française (UDF), discovered thatits voters did not necessarily follow its call to vote "yes." The Calvados, a department (département) the UDF dominates, rejected Maastricht. Not that the "no" leaders were more successful, for Charles Pasqua failed to carry his department , the Hauts-de-Seine. InEuropethereisageneralmoodofpopulistprotestforwhichMaastricht has become a scapegoat. But, while we shall not neglect the comparative perspective throughout this paper, there are reasons to believe that France's political situation presents traits which are specifically French. Unemployment , forexample, was the dominant issue in the 1993 elections. Yet French unemployment is approximately the same as British or Italian—10.3 percent compared with 9.7 percent and 11.1 percent, respectively—although in these countries other issues have greater political resonance.' The notion that France is undergoing an indigenous crisis in her public life is widespread in recentwriting. It is presented in its most intelligent form Economist, September 19, 1992. 29 30 SAIS REVIEW inLaRépubliquedu Centre(1988)whereFrançoisFuret,JacquesJulliardand Pierre Rosanvallon argue that "France has gone soft, politics is dreary... passions are worn out and imagination has gone to sleep."2 Published at the outset of Mitterrand's second term, this book anticipates the collapse of confidenceinSocialistrule. Itis(self-fulfillingly?)prophetic. ForJulliard,the Parti Socialiste's (PS) shift ofeconomic strategy in 1983 signalled the end of the Left with its historic project of emancipation. There remained only a political and media elite which had lost touch with the masses. Furet, too, stressesthebreak-downofhistorical structures, singlingoutthedecline ofthe Gaullist and Communist families. Expanding on this postmodernist vision, Rosanvallon argues that politics have lost any societal base, that class categoriesareno longermeaningful, andthathence, people are notintegrated into a national community. Indeed,athemeofLaRépubliqueisthe "endofFrenchexceptionalism,", bywhichFuretmeanstheendingofthe strugglesunleashedbytheRevolution whichservedasformsofidentity. Thechiefofthese,therepublicanstateitself, is called into question by a Europe which, unable to replace the state, constitutes merely "the promise of prosperity or at worst the threat of competition."4 Here again the book foreshadows the strong "no" vote in the referendum. Furet'snotion ofexceptionalismhasbeenbroadenedinthedaily debate to mean that French identity itselfis threatened.5 NotthatLaRépubliqueisunreservedlygloomy. Furetbelievesthatfresh forms ofparticipation may arise from the demise ofthe old state. In general, however, thethreeauthorsemphasizethedissolutionofexistingsocialbonds. This in rum leads to the menace of the Front National (FN), which offers a spurious but emotional vision of national identity and flaunts its difference fromtheblandhomogeneityofthemainstreamparties. Rosanvalloncontrasts the technocratic abstractions of their discourse with Le Pen's concrete and even sexual language. Other commentators share some of these views. Thierry Pfister perceives three French crises—corruption, parliament's lack of power and the stacking ofthe state administration with party appointees. All stem from the 2 Pierre Rosanvallon, "Malaise de la Représentation," in La République du Centre, François Furet, Jacques Julliard and Pierre Rosanvallon (Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1988), p. 137. 3 Furet, Julliard, Rosanvallon, "Avant-Propos," op. cit., p. 1 1. 4 Furet, "La France Unie," op. cit., p. 28. 5 Paul Thibaud, "Paradoxes du Nationalisme Français," LeMonde, February 5, 1992. A READING OF DOMESTIC FRENCH POLITICS 3 1 lack ofcleardebate aboutreal political alternatives.6 Emmanuel Todd writes of "ideological disintegration," which reflects and shapes a state of "anomy" in which the individual no longer possesses rules to guide his existence.7 Significantly, the term "anomy" waspopularizedby Durkheim, whousesitto characterizetheperilsofmodernization. Even observerswhodonotgive way to gloom stress the speed of social and economic change. Henri Mendras depictsthedisappearanceofoldclassstructuresandtheirreplacementbyanew central constellation, previously unknown and unthinkable.8 It can now, however, be thought, thanks to Mendras. The issue of whetherintellectuals help shape the phenomena they analyze is posed by the work ofJean Baudrillard. His vision ofthe "end ofthe social...