France's New Elite

...Ironically enough, this progress has to a certain degree been made possible by the post-liberation colonial wars, in Indo-China and Algeria...

...They emerged from a state of immobility and thoroughly adopted the most modern technical, industrial and commercial forms...

...It was actually they who governed France behind the facade of the Fourth Republic's weak, unstable governments...

...now in power...

...But this was halted by the world economic crisis of 1929, which was exacerbated in France by the perennial government obsession with preserving the gold standard...

...On the other hand, the sentiments to which one appeals in trying to realize such ends are completely real...

...Preceding regimes had believed it possible both to finance the Algerian war and to realize social reforms...

...If the old Socialist doctrine of the distribution of wealth within a country is now outmoded, must the same be said for direct action by trade unions and other working class groups...

...Above all, they are ever more absorbed by the values of our present mass civilization and are attracted to the American model of society, in which professional groups struggle vigorously to advance materially but without questioning the basic framework of the social structure...

...Eager to restore free competition and to curb the State's intervention, the financiers regret the disappearance of an ineffective parliamentary regime which had served their interests...

...In the 19th century, France was a nation of artisans, small farmers and petty industrial and commercial entrepreneurs producing at great cost for a domestic market and protected by government policies from foreign competition...

...The first big surge toward modern, large-scale enterprise was produced by World War I and the postwar reconstruction...

...The only class that is capable of making a revolution today is the very class which is actually doing so, the class that in fact has the power to administer, organize and create...

...In this case, it would be more correct to speak not of an end to action, but of limits, which, however, can be expanded as France comes of age industrially...

...and they are increasingly eager to play a role in the conduct of their enterprise...

...In recent years, the annual rate of industrial growth in the six Common Market countries has been 5.75 per cent...

...For example, as a result of such action, the high wages prevalent in model industries might well spread to the industrial sector whose productivity has not advanced at the same rate and to the same level...

...France's entry into the European Common Market was a decisive step forward...

...There is a growing distance and distinction between them and workers in marginal enterprises, whose hopes for advancement are few...

...governmental protectionist policies that advanced the vested interests of a great number of backward business enterprises...

...But they would not hesitate to grant local and regional autonomy provided this did not lead to the rejection of economic planning...

...The fact is that by stressing the primacy of monetary redistribution, the politicians have demoralized the whole country...

...The real problem will arise in the new world we are entering, after the techniques of flexible planning have been adopted everywhere...

...They all feel they belong to a new middle class, one that has nothing in common with the decadent pre-capitalist middle class...

...The general insufficiency of income has been due to technical backwardness and low productivity...

...The latter two are a graver threat to France's progress than the former, which is backward and is rapidly becoming an economic anachronism...

...Now they hold power openly, and it is among these technical administrators that President de Gaulle has found his closest collaborators...

...On the other hand, if the wages in the backward sector, even when raised, are high enough only to permit purchase of more food products, the sole result would be inflationary—a price rise that would profit only retailers or possibly also farmers...

...The distribution of wealth must henceforth be regarded as a world problem, and the economically advanced countries must, if they are to survive, devote at least three per cent of their annual national incomes to aid for underdeveloped countries...

...Now, the Government, constituted in this fashion, faced a catastrophic economic situation when it came to power...

...They favor European union but would prefer a free trade zone and a general lowering of tariffs to enable capital to circulate with complete freedom...

...The explanation for this is that there is little social inequality in France: From 1922 to 1958 the workers' share of the national income rose from 45 to 52 per cent...

...This goal is of primary importance...

...to penalize financially all the big industrial and commercial firms, in favor of artisans, small business and family enterprises...

...The primacy of the individual must be the first principle, the affirmation of his supreme dignity, which must be recognized as higher than all group interests and all group moralities...

...Though most of them have higher salaries than the government functionaries, they do not own capital in the enterprises they administer...

...For these people, large private enterprises are not just objects of ownership...

...The immediate concern must be to eliminate those financial and industrial elements which have failed to meet the needs of our time, and to seek to integrate the Army into the nation's democratic life...

...Final ends have little importance, since long before they are attained the very facts which made them appealing will have changed completely...

...If wages there are already sufficiently high so that any increase would be spent on the purchase of durable goods, then such a wage rise could become a factor making for a rise in productivity...

...France has adopted a modern, highly progressive economic structure...

...For after a half-century of delay...

...He has the right to maintain his private life and liberty of thought, independent of any particular group to which he may belong...

...The first ought to be the achievement of a technically perfected economic organization, in order to produce a general increase of the national income...

...This compares with 8-10 per cent in the USSR, and about 1.5 per cent in the U.S...

...At the present time, the problem of a just distribution of income has taken on a new form...

...the multiplicity of economically useless middlemen: price controls based on the profit calculations of marginal enterprises...

...During the past two years, French industrialists abandoned their long-standing opposition to this program, accepted the terms of the European economic agreements and began to reorganize production so as to lower costs...

...their incomes rise through productivity premiums, and their professional status is advanced on the basis of fixed rules of promotion...

...They tend to be even more paternalistic than the public functionaries and have the pride of people who know they can and ought to impose their solutions on the mass of people...

...An increase of national income is above all necessary, since part of it will have to be drained off to help the underdeveloped countries...

...These managers think in terms of planning...

...The time has come to recognize that the period of revolutionary romanticism is at an end, and phraseology that no longer corresponds to reality ought to be dropped...

...For the future, there are two main tasks...

...As a Socialist, I feel it is imperative to look realistically at the concrete economic and political situation, to re-examine old doctrines and to define relevant policies to meet the new conditions...

...But it will not suffice to increase production...

...Successive postwar governmental attempts to modernize and rationalize the economy were stymied, largely for political reasons...

...This is the policy of expansion desired by de Gaulle and the majority of the social group...

...If one appeals to hatred and violence, one will create a society of hatred and violence...

...they consider such demands to be two different kinds of the same nonsense...

...what they desire for France is a state with a strong president, a government capable of making decisions—but one that is politically liberal, for they believe that technical progress is predicated on complete freedom of research, discussion and experimentation...

...Though these wars seriously strained the country's credit and financial balance, they stimulated a great productive effort in plants producing military goods and in the aeronautic, electronic, automotive, chemical and machinery industries...

...The de Gaulle Government reflects the rise to power of these three new social groups of functionaries, entrepreneurial managers and workers in "pilot-industries...

...as we have noted, this makes it possible for employes to gain substantial and increasing advantages...

...Profit, for them, is not immediate gain, but the result of long-term operations depending on the forward movement of the country's whole economy and particularly on the intervention of the State, whose orders and investments are economically decisive...

...Finance capital recognizes the need for economic progress, but associates it with the operation of the so-called free market, dominated, in actual fact, by the big industries in which the linanciers actively participate...

...Since the traditional political parties wanted to win elections, they were always ready Andre Philip is professor of law at the Sorbonne...

...That is why the fundamental task ahead is to decentralize decision-making bodies, to multiply autonomous local groups, to gain the workers' participation in the conduct of economic enterprises...

...repeatedly defeated in battle, it has developed a bitter sense of abandonment by the country...

...The European Economic Community must therefore set for itself the goal of a minimum annual economic growth of 6-7 per cent...

...This is the problem that must be faced, especially as the number of functionaries, salaried employes and workers in the modern industrial sector grows...

...at the same time, the number of salaried employes also increased, so that the average income of each person has remained about the same...

...The finance capitalists would be willing enough to grant independence to Algeria, for they are indifferent to political forms as long as business prospers...

...Though salaried employes in France have not been progressively pauperized, there is no doubt that their economic condition has not been even relatively ameliorated...

...Men may be distinguished not so much by the ends they proclaim as by the means they are willing to utilize...

...They are, rather, centers of a complicated contractual system involving rational mutual obligations between managers, workers, sellers of raw materials, consumers and capital investors...

...In the future, all new benefits will be paid for by the whole population through direct or indirect taxation...

...Regular growth is possible only in terms of a plan and all that goes with it—the determination of priorities, the systematic use of nationalized enterprises, a selective policy of price and credit controls, and continual public investment in new industries...

...The real problem today, then, is not social inequality but the general mediocrity of the standard of living...

...For after all, what is it that we want to create, if not a responsible society freely ruled by responsible men...

...On the problem of Algeria, it is only its economic aspects that interest these managers...

...Equilibrium could only be achieved by increasing exports, restricting the domestic sale of exportable commodities and using taxes and credit to pay for indispensable industrial projects and large investment in essential economic sectors...

...They think of their problems in technical terms, within the framework of an economic plan, though still with a view to immediate gain...

...The real difference is not between those who seek to create a capitalist society or a collectivistic society or an anarchistic society or what have you—but between those who are ready to torture others to attain their ends and those who will never accept such methods...

...To these workers in what might be called "pilot-industries" must be added the lower-paid technicians in all enterprises and the majority of office employes...

...In fact, feeling itself responsible to the nation, the Army has tried to think politically, but it is not equipped to do so...

...The second social grouping that has attained power is composed of the managers and executives of large enterprises, both public and private...

...Such a victory, purchased at the price of men's unendurable ennui, would be too dear...

...These workers are constantly making rapid economic strides...

...the creation of favored public and private cartels...

...This economic transformation has brought new social groups to power—bureaucrats, managers of enterprises, workers in big industry...

...by creating close personal and professional bonds with their counterparts in the other five Common Market countries...

...The surge forward was resumed immediately after World War II, but it was slowed down for some years by a variety of adverse factors: a war-debilitated production system...

...A third social group that has come to power at the same time is composed of the workers in the nationalized sectors of the economy and in those private enterprises whose technology is so far advanced that manual labor represents only a tiny fraction of its costs...

...FRANCE'S NEW ELITE Recent political transformation has been accompanied by the rise to power of bureaucratic, managerial and industrial groups By Andre Philip PARIS FRANCE TODAY at at one of its great historical turning-points...

...The Army's mentality has grown estranged from that of the rest of the nation: Constantly in action abroad, it has remained unaware of the profound changes at home...

...It is, in fact, a rapidly evolving system, and any criticism of it ought to be responsible and realistic, rather than romantic and oppositionist for the sake of opposition...

...In considering the limits of trade-union action for wage increases, certain distinctions must be borne in mind...

...This aid should not be considered charity, but rather a contribution to the productive power of the underdeveloped countries, from which the rest of the world will ultimately benefit...

...They are scornful of empty political rhetoric and are likely to believe that all problems are susceptible to objective solution so long as politics is kept out of the picture...

...Though they are not attracted to the distant ideal of European unity, they are not opposed to it, and they are quite indifferent to events in Algeria...

...The Army has long been an aristocratic caste, cursing the Republic even when obeying it...

...The paradox is that this Government was set up by a revolt of the marginal sector of the economy and has been forced to associate itself with the Army and finance capital...

...After the war, it was given a more democratic character by the reforms of the late Marshal de Lattre de Tassigny...

...As for Europe, they are even more committed to continental unity than are the bureaucrats, and they are trying to build this unity, so far as they can...

...At the present time, we live in a system that can no longer be called capitalist, nor yet Socialist...

...Thus, there is a greater income gap between the Algerian peasant and the poorest paid French worker than between such a worker and the richest capitalist in France...

...Readers will recall his article, "The Birth of the Fifth Republic," which appeared here July 7-14, 1958...

...The inventive, innovating element of the economy have thus been at the mercy of its backward sector...

...Today, however, it is quite unrealistic to seek an egalitarian distribution of goods in France by legislation...

...At the same time, they are interested in developing a science of human relations and have formed the habit of discussing problems with trade union leaders, whom they regard as technicians of mass action...

...For the industrialists would feel compelled, if they had to grant such wage increases, finally to replace handwork by mechanization...

...The role of the managers increasingly approximates that of the directors of public enterprises, with a concomitant growth of their political power...

...Its political crisis, reflected in the rise to power of General Charles de Gaulle, is the result of a vast transformation of its economic and social life...

...Such benefits will be along the line of free services for everybody in health, social security and particularly education...

...Above all...

...For the fact is that France's economy is bifurcated: There is a progressive sector consisting of the technicians and the bulk of the investors in large-scale enterprise...

...Though military men are naturally attracted by the idea of planned production and collective organization of economic and social life, they are totally disdainful of capitalists and reject the profit factor...

...By experience, they have formed the habit of negotiation and conciliation, and so they orient themselves easily to the conceptions of European unity and a Franco-African community...

...Similarly, the average income in the United States is 35 times greater than that in India...

...They tend naturally to think in terms of plans that will enhance their country's authority, power and prestige By temperament, they have confidence in experts, especially such as can strengthen the State...

...And if some of them are still owners, their firms are linked to the large industries from which they receive orders and on which they must consequently depend in making their decisions...

...And their experience in Tunisia and Morocco taught them that they could readily adapt to such new situations...

...But our six countries have now entered a period of regression, which, if it continues, will have rendered useless all the sacrifices made for national defense, and 10 years from now our whole continent might as a result be under a totalitarian dictatorship...

...As they see it, the real problem is to lay the basis for new economic expansion, to build a modern industry, and so they are less concerned with the population's immediate needs...

...They have no patience with demands for independence or integration...

...and the backward sector, consisting of the majority of the productive population which either sells its services or engages in small independent enterprise...

...Trade-union action in France, therefore, if it is to have a truly positive impact, must be directed first of all toward a reorganization of the mechanics of distribution and of the technical conditions of agricultural production...

...Though man ought to be a responsible person in all public spheres, he ought never to be considered totally committed in any of his actions...

...The bureaucratic elements, above all, have increased in influence...

...He was General de Gaulle's Commissioner of the Interior in 1942 and Finance Minister in Leon Blum's postwar cabinet...

...The problem then will be that of freedom, which may well be threatened by our very victory over poverty...

...these policies, however, resulted in higher prices, export reduction and an unfavorable balance of trade...

...It has become an international, rather than a national question...

...The real political struggle is between those who seek to maintain high profits and low taxes and those who desire increased public investment and lower profits, accompanied by higher taxes for the whole population, if necessary...

...These top functionaries, experienced in serving the State, are disinterested and competent workers...

...They have created in all groups a petty bourgeois state of mind, which is unwilling to achieve anything by effort or sacrifice and which conceives of the state as a cow to be milked...

...If one appeals to the egoism of certain groups—races, nations, classes—one will inevitably create an egoistic society...

...Nevertheless, the French economic structure has, quietly, steadily, almost inadvertently, been making great forward strides...

...increasingly, their social position is defined by their function in the enterprise rather than by membership in the working class...

...For years, the general discontent of the French people has stemmed from the fact that our citizens have not had enough income to buy products such as automobiles, television sets, household gadgets, etc...

...The other powerful element, finance capital, counts for less today in France than in the other Common Market countries, but it still plays an important role through banking and its investment influence on the communications media...

...The Army leadership is animated by dreams of national greatness which hinder a proper understanding of the real contemporary problems, particularly those of European unity and the association of Europe with an autonomous Africa...

...In the 19th century it was possible to improve the workers' standard of living by such laws as those providing for a progressive income tax and social security...

...In advanced industries, productivity grows rapidly, and the amount spent on wages becomes less and less significant in determining costs...

...The mentality of these men is scientific and technical...

...A member of the Socialist Executive for 12 years, he broke with his party over Algeria in 1957...