Abstract
If the crisis reinforced the pressure to reform the French Welfare State under the scrutiny of the European Commission, these reforms were difficult to decide (and to implement) because of their political costs and more generally the low legitimacy of political actors (especially the current socialist government and the President François Hollande). The legitimacy issue is crucial because since the institutional reform of 1996 (plan Juppé) the French state is more directly accountable for welfare reforms in health care and unemployment where traditionally non-state actors (social partners, doctors …) played a key role. In the context of the crisis, the French authorities tried to negotiate reforms with non-state actors in these two sectors in order to avoid the political blame. The French Welfare State is also challenged by demographic evolutions. Although France has a rather high level of fertility, ageing affects the population as in other European countries. However, the impact of demographic evolutions seems weaker than the financial impact of the crisis on the French Welfare State which has not, however, changed its reform path which began in the mid 1990s.
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Notes
- 1.
This reform was achieved during autumn 2007, despite long strikes in the transport sector. It was politically used by the new elected president to show the strength of his political will and his ability to realize what his predecessors feared to do.
- 2.
An exception was made for mothers born before 1956.
- 3.
The French position was sustained by the IMF, “Déficits: les coulisses de l’accord Paris-Bruxelles”, Le Monde, 16/05/2013.
- 4.
The goal was to have a balanced budget within 2 years (Hassenteufel 2003: 125).
- 5.
This evolution cannot only be related to these measures: the decrease in the number of doctors and the absence of new pharmaceutical “blockbusters” are two main factors to take into account (Tabuteau 2013: 195).
- 6.
Operated by Ipsos-Steria for Le Monde, France-Inter, the Jean-Jaurès Foundation and the research center of Sciences Po (Cevipof). Sample: 1005 people.
- 7.
As in 2013 56 % of the people interviewed answered that unemployment is a great worry for them. Even before the crisis, in the 2008 European Social Survey Round, the item rated lowest satisfaction with welfare state performance in France is “opportunities for young people to find a job” (with a rate of 3.5 on a 0–10 scale).
- 8.
It is also worth noticing that the social investment policy for the work-family conciliation historically relies on the state with near universal access to écoles maternelles for children under 6 years old (Morgan 2011: 164).
- 9.
Based on a representative sample of 1803 citizen (with the right to vote) operated by the OpinionWay Institute for the CEVIPOF and the Economic, Social and Environmental Council.
- 10.
In the “barometer of political trust” the level of trust in trade-unions is higher than for political parties (24 % in December 2009, 23 % in December 2013).
- 11.
In the agreement signed between three trade-unions and the main business association in March 2014 unemployed people finding a new job earn new rights to unemployment benefits after 150 hours of work, without losing their previous rights. It also facilitates the combination of unemployment benefits and part-time jobs.
- 12.
The share of national wealth invested in childcare/preschool in France (1.12 % of GDP) is much higher than the OECD average (0.96 %). It has remained stable since the early 2000s and represents one-third of all per capita spending on children throughout childhood (Thévenon et al. 2014).
- 13.
In 2011 the percentage of GDP expenditure on social protection was 33.6 %, far above the EU average (29 %) (Eurostat). In 2013 the deficit of the social security was still 12.5 billion euros but has decreased since 2010 (23.9 billion euros).
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Hassenteufel, P. (2016). Muddling Through the Crisis: The French Welfare State Under Financial Stress. In: Schubert, K., de Villota, P., Kuhlmann, J. (eds) Challenges to European Welfare Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07680-5_12
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