The Long Good Bye to Bismarck? Changes in the French Welfare State

Abstract

From 1945 to the late 1970s, social policies in France expanded as one of the key features of the Keynesian compromises that underpinned the trente glorieuses. Social spending was perceived as favouring economic growth and employment, social insurance transfers were seen as consolidating social integration and (occupational) solidarity, and welfare-state institutions supported social peace. Since then, all the economic, social and political functions of the social protection systems have been called into question. After a long period of crisis and resistance, French social programmes are being reformed in order to become better adapted to the new economic and social environment. These reforms are supposed to increase the economic and social efficiency of social policies. Whether they are also politically legitimate and socially just remains questionable.