MITTERRAND'S FIRST TWO YEARS

...The president of the national assembly, Louis Mermaz, echoed him, though in more careful terms, when he recently said: "The principal issues in the next few years will be 'cultural...

...And so, by the middle of 1982 the government had to reverse course and proclaim a period of austerity and restraints...

...The united SP-CP lists in the municipal election of March 1983 will probably register some losses, less perhaps through gains of the right than through abstention of dissatisfied voters...

...It receives about 43 percent of the votes in factory-council elections throughout the country...

...and the right, still short of a real alternative, can only react...

...The Catholic teaching establishment reacted violently and stated that they were not even willing to discuss the project with the Ministry of Education...

...When it comes to the economy, one cannot, alas, be as positive...

...France now has roughly as many unemployed as there are farmers...

...Most independent leftists with whom I spoke tend to think of the CFDT as the most hopeful organization...

...One could go on...

...Nobody seems to know whether the inflation rate will again increase in 1983...

...But, in the meantime, there are as many unemployed as there are farmers in France...

...After Francois Mitterrand was elected president of France in May 1981, and the legislative elections of June 1981 gave the Socialist party a solid majority in the National Assembly, a sense of euphoria spread through the French left, both inside and outside the new government...

...All one can say is that the French Socialists have the occasion and a long period in which to learn the skills of running a state...

...Yet the major change of policy, a "pause" in the reforming zeal of the government, came on the economic, not the political, front...

...Everything seemed possible...

...That in itself is a most positive development...

...so there is no need here to go into further particulars...

...One example is that of educational reform...

...As a director of research put it to me, "The Giscard elite was arrogant, the new elite is often incompetent...

...The trouble is that this would mean hiring some 40,000 or 50,000 new teachers and might well encounter the veto of those responsible for closing the vast budgetary gap...

...In regard to what we in America call liberal measures, the record of the government is decidedly positive...

...Even though the private school would maintain a measure of autonomy, its teaching personnel would become state employees and be treated in the same way as those now in the public system...

...The present governmental elite is composed of two divergent elements...

...the powers of elected factory councils were enlarged...

...They are essentially technocratic in their orientation and tend to value efficiency over and above self-management or decentralization...

...The French labor force grows by around 200,000 each year and unemployment stubbornly continues to hover around 2 million...

...On the other hand, just because it has closer ties to the government, it may also be more cautious when there looms a danger of antagonizing the powers that be...

...Some circulation of elites has surely taken place...

...In its first year in office the new regime attempted nothing less than a fundamental transformation not only of the economy but of the whole fabric of French society...

...The second project of the Ministry of Education envisages a closer integration of the private (that is, Catholic) system of education with the public system...

...Socialists not only began to wonder what had caused this setback after so short a period in power, but some among them also began to have doubts about administrative decentralization that, so it seemed, might strengthen the powers of the right on lower levels of the administrative structure while the Mitterrand government continued to hold the levers of power on the national level...

...It may be, as I have heard, that key positions often have been taken not by the first-rate technocrats, who largely manned such positions ever since de Gaulle, but by those heretofore in second-rank position...

...All in all, it gathers about 25 percent of the total vote in the nation's factory councils...

...But the CFDT (Confederation Francaise du Travail), which evolved out of the former Christian union movement, is challenging it effectively in a number of regions—not only in regions where the Church has been traditionally strong but elsewhere too...

...Be that as it may, there is a surprising lack of serious policy discussion among Parisian intellectuals...

...The working week was reduced from 40 to 39 hours, the retirement age was reduced to 60...

...The economic program was in shambles...

...The French situation now leads one to raise the question whether it is even possible to build an advanced welfare state in one country...

...Of the Socialist parliamentary faction almost half 167 (132) are teachers, and 94 of these elementary teachers...

...Increase of purchasing power led to rising imports rather than to a revival of French industry...

...169...

...Nationalizations, the tighter hold of the state on the remaining private sector, and even huge new investments in supposed growth industries may be unable to provide the basis for an extended welfare state within the context of the deteriorating world market...

...They are much more likely to talk about Afghanistan or Foucault than about the newest governmental decree...

...Here things still hang very much in the balance and the economic future looks bleak, at least for the immediate future...

...If the worldwide slump continues, all bets are off...

...To begin with, the Socialist party and governmental circles are often torn between the centralizing, JacobinNapoleonic tendencies inherited from the French past, and newer decentralizing tendencies that have roots in ideas first propounded during the Resistance and by elements of the Catholic left...

...The Ministry of Education recently published two tentative plans for changing the character of the educational system...

...The 168 CFDT now has a majority in the former CP and CGT citadel, the Parisian Renault auto works...

...The abolition of the death penalty and of special tribunals, the improvements in the rights of women and of immigrant workers, the attempts to lift the deadweight of the Napoleonic tradition in public administration, the institutionalization of collective bargaining, the improvement in social welfare, and many other measures, all represent an advance that is highly impressive...

...but Rocardian tendencies still persist within and outside the government...

...If the international economic situation improves in the years to come, the French economic experiment might well succeed beyond what now seems likely...

...In October 1982 the French were forced to conclude an agreement with an international consortium of banks for a $4 billion standby credit to defend the franc...

...Certain older industrial sectors, such as steel or building materials, were taken over by the government...

...It promised a major devolution of political decisionmaking to local and regional levels...

...While nationalizations were enthusiastically pushed forward by the majority in the government, the socialist current represented by Michel Rocard, once leader of the left-wing Parti Socialiste Unifie, expressed doubts about the program from the beginning...

...Improvement of the quality of life is on the agenda independently of austerity and it may upon occasion even work against it...

...The recently deceased Louis Aragon was the last major man of letters to remain among the faithful...

...The top civil service staff is largely dominated by this administrative elite...

...As one cynical observer put it in regard to the left-wing intellectuals, "some of them have found niches in the government, and others hope to find such niches...

...Socialists agreed after the Russian disaster that it is impossible to build "socialism in one country...

...There have been very few major strikes...

...It seems likely, moreover, that they will gain influence in the present climate of austerity, when many projects dear to the hearts of the militants have to be postponed for lack of money...

...Right now, independent left intellectuals have not found new common grounds...

...This may also be the reason one hears so much gossip in coffee houses and research offices about the incompetence and foibles of this or that minister...

...For example, it is foreseen that if the central government disagrees with decisions taken by elected regional assemblies it can appeal to the administrative courts—and such procedure can drag on for years...

...But I shall resist this temptation...

...but that was largely caused by the temporary wage and price freeze...

...The rate of inflation last year was 9.7 percent, which looks like a considerable improvement over the 14 percent of the previous year...

...Gossip about individual failings allows one to avoid taking principled stands on larger issues...

...So it is too early to voice a strong opinion on whether there can be an advanced welfare state in one country...

...The government's initial projects were predicated on the idea that enlarged purchasing power as well as vastly increased investments in the nationalized and private sectors would restimulate French industry...

...There are fewer in government posts under Mitterrand than were under his predecessors, but they continue to carry considerable weight...

...But by May 1982 it became clear that this policy was near collapse...

...The economic failure of the first period of Mitterrand's regime must be put into perspective: the previous government had not succeeded either in slowing down unemployment or in stimulating investment...

...But I can still work with the latter...

...This is why so many of them stay on the sidelines even though they are vaguely in favor of Mitterrand's government...

...paid vacations were extended...

...One has the feeling that the relative unity of left-wing intellectuals, partly forged in the fight against the Algerian war and reinforced both over Vietnam and the May 1968 events, has been broken...

...The parliamentary elections, however, will take place only in 1986 and presidential elections not until 1988...

...A period of austerity became imperative...

...A number of profeminist laws also were passed: medical abortions for those who could not afford them were to be paid by the government, tax statements can no longer be signed by husbands alone but also need the signature of their wives...

...the legal protection of workers in regard to working conditions and to the arbitrary exercise of managerial authority was reinforced...

...Even so, the franc is still in a precarious position...

...They tend to be tentative in their judgments, prudent in their opinions, and generally disinclined to engage themselves deeply one way or another...

...This group claimed that it was more important to emphasize workers' participation in industrial enterprises and decentralized decision-making on the administrative level...

...Only about 20 percent of all workers are unionized...

...The trade union movement is also, by and large, fairly quiescent...

...It has ties to the decentralizing elements around Rocard, and it seems generally receptive to innovative ideas...

...Left-wing teachers, journalists, writers, and other party faithful have entered the decisionmaking circles...

...Compensation payments to the previous owners of nationalized industries proved to be a heavy burden on the state budget, and new private investments failed to materialize...

...but even these men and women often have competencies far exceeding those of the newcomers...

...After a long delay, French intellectuals have now ended their decades of love affaiys with the Soviets...

...Le Monde, the most respected of all French newspapers and basically favorable to the Mitterrand government, has recently calculated that France's total foreign currency debt has nearly doubled to $45 billion since the Socialists came to power...

...Rocard, often seen as the only serious contender for power on the left after Mitterrand, has at present been put into a ministerial position that gives him no real influence...

...That it was introduced just before those elections indicates the imperfect relations between various ministries...

...It surely was foolish to antagonize Catholic voters just before they went to the polls...

...Indeed, this projected law foresees an increase in teaching hours for certain categories of teachers, and their union has already protested and asked for financial compensation...

...Wages and prices were frozen for four months in the second part of 1982, and they continued to be tightly controlled even after the original freeze was lifted...

...But the international balance of trade continues to show huge deficits...

...Yet even these reforms tend to be less radical than they appear at first view...

...The franc had to be devalued twice during one year...

...As a result, the government cannot use the unions as extra-parliamentary supports in the way previous governments used employers' organizations...

...At current rates of borrowing, some $10 billion to $15 billion a year, France in a few years could reach international debts approaching those of Brazil or Argentina . . . ! The government is resolved not to permit such a state of affairs, hence the current politics of austerity...

...The third major union, Force Ouvriere, largely apolitical and in many ways similar to American unions, has a total support of some 18 percent, very largely of white-collar workers and more particularly civil servants...

...166 we now have to concentrate on bringing about changes in the daily lives of people...

...They act...

...The general euphoria and activism stalled, however, after the government's first year in power...

...The local elections of March 1982 showed gains by the right...

...a law was passed that for the first time securely institutionalized the right of French workers to engage in annual plant-level collective bargaining...

...But one must always keep in mind that the French union movement as a whole is weak compared to, say, its British or German counterparts...

...The wives of artisans and small businessmen received protection of their economic and patrimonial rights against abusive actions by their husbands...

...The Communist party has lost all serious influence among intellectuals...

...It is less hidebound, and willing to discuss such questions as workers' participation with the government...

...The Socialist government nationalized virtually all private banks...

...Quite apart from the economic crisis, there are a number of other factors that create obstacles in the government's path...

...Despite obstacles of various sorts, there will be a number of innovative laws passed by the Mitterrand government in the coming years, but it is hard to believe that it will soon revert to the enthusiastic and innovative zeal of its first year in power...

...More recently they negotiated a large line of credit with the Saudis...

...There is little criticism of the government, but there is also little fervent enthusiasm outside the Socialist party and its fringes...

...The CGT remains the strongest among the unions...

...Many of the members have come through the ranks of the Socialist party...

...This projected law foresees the introduction, on the high school level, of a tutorial system that would give special attention to students coming from a background lacking cultural endowments (what the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu calls "symbolic capital...

...The most revealing statement I came across during a recent visit to France was made by the powerful minister of economic and financial affairs, Jacques Delors...

...Said he: "There can be no expensive reforms in 1983 or 1984...

...The administrative decentralization measures—especially the reduction of the power of the Parisappointed prefects and the projected election of regional assemblies that would take away much of the powers of the prefects—have been proposed and partly instituted by Minister of the Interior Gaston Deferre, who is by no means a Rocardian...

...In consequence, the whole matter has been postponed until after the forthcoming municipal elections in March 1983...

...In the political sphere, the government announced an ambitious plan of administrative decentralization that broke with the centralizing tradition of France dating from the days of Richelieu, the Jacobins, and Napoleon...

...In other words, attempts will be made to ameliorate daily existence, but only if such projects don't cost much...

...But both in the newly nationalized industries and in many governmental offices technocrats still tend to have a decisive voice, often simply because they are more competent than the newcomers...

...They belong to the professional and white-collar strata in which the party for a long time has had a considerable influence...

...As the Nouvel Observateur, a progovernment magazine, noted last December, the franc has lost creditability on international monetary markets and, once received, is quickly converted into other currencies...

...As a result, the unemployment rate, far from falling, increased slightly so that there are now around 2 million unemployed...

...The deteriorating balance of trade as well as ballooning budget deficits and an annual growth rate lower in 1982 than even that of Britain all indicated that the initial plans had failed...

...The obstacles here are not financial but political...

...More important, however, is that the economic failure of the first optimistic year of Mitterrand's government was caused to a large extent by the continued depression in the rest of the world...

...They calculated that the international depression had about run its course so that French industry, powerfully 165 stimulated by state and private investments, would pull itself by its own bootstraps out of the long stagnation that had marked the last years of the presidency of Giscard...

...During the first year in power, the government abolished the death penalty, did away with military tribunals and the exceptional courts that previous governments had created to insure "the security of the state...

...The Communist-led CGT, even though it has protested against the austerity measures, has not attempted to create mass opposition to governmental policy, perhaps because it does not want to risk the ouster of the Communist members of the government who will be kept on only as long as they behave themselves...

...VVhen it comes to dressing up a balance sheet of the Mitterrand government's first two years in power, one is tempted to be as evasive as I found most Parisian intellectuals...

...Voters tend to be most sensitive to economic conditions...

...The newly nationalized sectors piled up large deficits and were burdened by new social charges and rising wage bills...

...As one of them put it to me: "The Socialists are now in a period where they have to go through a long apprenticeship, and maybe we have to do that too...

...A number of key industrial enterprises in the high-technology sector, such as telecommunications, aerospace, data processing, and electrical equipment, also were nationalized...

...Mark Kesselman has dealt with these measures in the last issue of Dissent...

...After a very long period of exclusion and peripheral existence, they are now at the center of the political establishment...

...Rising production costs on the home market caused by progressive welfare policies made French industry less competitive on the world market and led to a continued weakening of the franc and huge adverse trade balances...

...Secondary education is to be revamped to make it more democratic and to increase access to postelementary education for boys and girls from previously disadvantaged strata...

...VVhat strikes the observer even after only a limited number of interviews with unattached left-wing intellectuals is the absence of political criticism on the left...

...On the other hand, a considerable number of the government's influentials have been recruited from graduates of the Ecole nationale d'administration, the elite school that has furnished a high proportion of both political leaders and top bureaucrats since the days of de Gaulle...