The symptoms of the French malaise defy treatment: high unemployment that now appears permanent, an immigrant Arab underclass threatening to explode, a government that throws fortunes away on industrial losers and ministers who routinely cave in to special interests. Even in soccer, the national sport, the French are in decline; losing to Israel and Bulgaria, they failed to make the World Cup tournament that starts this week. Some hand-wringers also complain that the French language and culture are dying. But the same purists who gripe about Americanization are apt to microwave their dinners, straight from the frozen-food section. Confused by change like no other West Europeans, the French wonder what kind of nation they are becoming. A little America? A greater North Africa?
Of course, other industrialized nations even powerhouse Germany-have to deal with disaffected youth, economic blight and changing populations. Some, like Britain, have adjusted more or less gracefully to a diminished world role. But France, dazzled by its own history, has not faced up to reality. “The French have to learn they are now a small nation,” says French-born Harvard historian Patrice Higonnet.
Hoping to change their fortunes, the French switched political horses last year, discharging the Socialists and installing conservatives led by Edouard Balladur, the scion of a courtlier France. But the drift continues. While the rest of Europe begins to sense that the recession is finally lifting, manv Frenchmen are gripped by a suspicion that the good times will never return.
One thoroughly justified fear is that France will price itself out of the world marketplace. Labor costs are already higher than anywhere else except Germany. The problem, employers say, is France’s admirable social safety net. The jobless get almost 60 percent of their former pay, for years if necessary. Millions of people receiverent subsidies, even when they are employed. “We are a nation of welfare recipients,” laments a radio commentator. The costs have begun to outweigh the benefits. The national health plan is running a $20 billion deficit this year. Total social-welfare costs equal nearly 45 percent of GNP, the highest share in the world. But no one wants to reform the system. While even former communists steer toward market economies, the French stubbornly cling to dirigisme, a sort of state-manipulated capitalism.
Balladur’s strategy, with a presidential election coming up in less than a year, has been to apply a general anesthesia, with generous injections of government money. Every interest group that takes to the streets seems to get its way. After fishermen spoiled millions of dollars’ worth of fish imports and held a violent demonstration that led to the burning of the 17thcentury Breton Parliament building in Rennes, Balladur rewarded them with subsidies of $55 million. In just two fiscal years, the prime minister has increased France’s relatively modest national debt by 40 percent, to $512 billion.
What really punctures French grandiosity is the fact that much of the world is rapidly succumbing to the English language and American values. The French worry that their culture is being swamped, especially in what should be its own sphere of influence. English is displacing French even in countries like Cambodia, formerly a bastion of the French-speaking nations.
Home team: The French government is pulling against the cultural tide. Starting next year, French radio disc jockeys will have to devote at least 40 percent of their air time to French-language songs. Culture Minister Jacques Toubon is pushing through a language-protection law imposing fines and even jail terms for advertisers who use foreign (i.e., English) terms when a French equivalent exists. Toubon has issued a dictionary of approved French equivalents, some of them ludicrously unwieldy, such as the word agrafe (staple), mandated to replace video “clip.”
The French are going through such a bad patch that they may need to be reminded about all the things they do well. France is still a very comfortable place to live with fine education, transportation and communications systems, not to mention the food and drink. But more than that is needed to solve the country’s intractable social and economic problems. Earlier this year, amid the national despair over unemployment, someone had an inspiration: bring back lespetits boulots - the menial jobs, such as concierges and Metro ticket-punchers, that have been eliminated by new technology. It is not a solution. But it would be very French.
