[Policy State Conversation] Contested Liberalization: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Conflict in France

Economic liberalization in France has been hotly contested, with reforms routinely triggering mass protests that in some cases lead to the cancellation of the reforms and the weakening of the governments that propose them. While most analyses point to either a Colbertiste French culture or the failings of French leaders, Contested Liberalization emphasizes the legacies of France’s postwar dirigiste economic model. Although the statist model was dismantled in the 1980s and 90s, three legacies of that model – policy, party-political, and institutional – continue to fuel the contestation of liberal reforms decades later. From a policy perspective, the expansion of measures of social protection in the 1980s helped make the break with the dirigiste model socially and politically acceptable, but also led policymakers to try to scale back these measures out of concern for their economic and labor market impact, while making many French citizens skeptical of liberalization measures, feeling that such measures had already been tried in the 1980s and 90s and failed to deliver on their promises. From a party-political perspective, because the dominant Gaullist party of the Right was both statist and nationalist and administered the dirigiste model during its heyday, France has generally lacked a strong political voice for economic liberalization, instead portraying it as an unwanted imposition by hegemonic Anglo-Saxons or the European Union. Finally, from an institutional perspective, the centralized and insular mode of decision-making of the dirigiste model is ill-suited to the challenge of welfare state and labor market liberalization, which centers around avoiding blame for unpopular decisions. Taken together, these three legacies of the dirigiste model have created a treacherous political environment for liberal reformers, fueling recurrent contestation in the streets, the upper reaches of government, and the ballot box. Contested Liberalization illustrates its argument with analyses of liberalizing reforms over the past four decades, including under the Macron administration, as well as with comparisons between France and other European countries.

Speaker

Jonah D. Levy received his Ph.D. in political science from MIT in 1994. He teaches courses in the areas of comparative political economy, French and West European politics, and welfare policy. Levy is Vice-Chair of the Department of Political Science as well as Director of Undergraduate Studies; he serves as a Faculty Liaison for the Disabled Students Program (DSP); and he is the Director of Berkeley's Center of Excellence in French Studies.

Levy has a forthcoming book entitled Contested Liberalization: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Conflict in France (Cambridge University Press, 2023) that describes and analyzes the contentious politics surrounding economic liberalization in France. Levy also has a forthcoming book with Edward Elgar entitled, Rethinking Economic Liberalization. Levy is a member of the Board of Polity and of the International Advisory Board for the journal, French Politics. He has received a Phi Beta Kappa award for excellence in teaching and been selected as the UC Berkeley, Undergraduate Political Science Association Professor of the Year.

Chair

Charlotte Halpern, Sciences Po, CEE