The Last Neoliberal: Macron and the Origins of France's Political Crisis

by Bruno Amable, Stefano Palombarini

This book analyses the French political crisis, which has entered its most acute phase in more than thirty years with the break-up of traditional left and right social blocs. Governing parties have distanced themselves from the working classes, leaving behind on the one hand craftsmen, shop owners and small entrepreneurs disappointed by the timidity of the reforms of the neoliberal right and, on the other hand, workers and employees hostile to the neoliberal and pro-European integration orientation of the Socialist Party. The presidency of François Hollande was less an anomaly than the definitive failure of attempts to reconcile the social base of the left with the so-called modernisation of the French model. The project, based on the pursuit of neoliberal reforms, did not die with Hollande’s failure; it was taken up and radicalised by his successor, Emmanuel Macron. This project needs a social base, the bourgeois bloc, designed to overcome the right–left divide by a new alliance between the middle and upper classes. But this, as we have seen recently on the streets of Paris and elsewhere, is a precarious process.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, France, Sociology, History, Political Science

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Bruno Amable is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Geneva. His research focuses on comparative capitalism and the political economy of institutions and change. He is the author of The Diversity of Modern Capitalism and Structural Crisis and Institutional Change in Modern Capitalism: French Capitalism in Transition.

Reviews

[Jakob Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uppfriskande med ett socialt och strukturellt perspektiv på fransk politik, men många likheter med övriga väst. Vikten av ett sammanhållet socialt block för politiska projekt och utmaningarna för vänstern kopplat till europeisk integration/globalisering i relation till höger/vänsterskalan.

[Dentzke · Rating 3 out of 5]

In sich stimmige und plausible Analyse der Entwicklung des französischen Parteiensystems. Um aber die Richtigkeit der Analyse einzuschätzen, fehlt mir die Kenntnis des politischen Systems Frankreichs. Der politische Bias der Autoren ist, obwohl nicht explizit erwähnt, offensichtlich. Das Übereinstimmen der Analyse mit den politischen Ansichten der Autoren macht mich bezüglich ihrer Faktizität zumindest stutzig. Trotzdessen eignet sie sich als leichter Einstieg in weitere Literatur französischer Politikwissenschaft.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tracks the development of modernism and neoliberalism in France and the current political crisis in the country.

The authors convincingly explain how policy choices taken by both the ruling parties on the left and right caused deep fractures in both voting blocs. This has resulted in no party being able to bring one single social bloc together, leading to what the authors say is a 'political crisis' and the emergence of a new minority 'bourgeois' bloc consisting mainly of the middle and upper classes, to the exclusion of the popular classes.

Although much of the book could be applied on a European level, the book gives good detail on the specifics of the political makeup in France and its paranoia around 'decline' relative to its competitors like the US, UK and Germany.

The focus is mostly on how neoliberalism took charge of the Parti Socialise beginning in the 1970s, dividing its base by prioritising European integration over the desire to unite a left social bloc, something brought about by pro-EU decisions made by Mitterand in the early 1980s and 1990s in separate terms as president (the turn towards austerity, Maastricht etc). They argue that the PS gradually made it an argument of the fight against unemployment versus the pursuit of the European project.

This fracturing of the left social bloc was evident in the 2005 EU constitutional referendum, which was rejected on predominantly economic and neoliberalism grounds.

The book also outlines how issues like immigration, national identity and laicite gained more prominence as parties look to find issues they can emphasise to bring together new social blocs. Added to this is a lack of coherency and agreement on the left over Europe and a diverse range of viewpoints which are mostly incompatible.

With the traditional left-right divide in crisis and the old social blocs fractured, the book argues that this has enabled a new party, Macron's La Republique En Marche, to come to power carried by this new bourgeois bloc.

They argue that, contrary to many depictions of Macron as a progressive, transformational 'reformer', he is merely accelerating France's transition towards a full turn towards neoliberal capitalism. This is done through a combination of quick reforms of many aspects of the economy including pensions, social protection, labour rights, tax and more, forced through at speed in order to weaken the power of traditional popular classes and trade unions, while also brutally repressing those who do protest.

This book could have benefitted from replacing the over-explanation of slightly abstract theoretical concepts with more contemporaneous real life examples, as was done with Sarkozy's alterations to the working week and Mitterand's approach to European integration.

However, an up to date analysis French politics is something I've not come across recently and the book is useful and worthwhile in this regard.

What the authors do emphasise is that the crisis of the left and right traditional governmental parties, and the FN's lack of ability to consolidate a social bloc despite attempting to do so on a sovereigntist, Eurosceptic standing and by focusing on issues like laicite, secularisation and immigration, mean that even though Macron's bourgeois bloc is quite narrow, it is unclear how it can be easily overtaken in the years to come.

It does suggest that elements of the LREM's approach may widen the inequalities already present enough to alienate some of its support, though it questions how quickly other political forces such as a left coalition along a renewed social bloc could capitalise on this.

[Abbi · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, so dry. Also heavy on the economics, so if you don't have a head for that sort of thing it's hard to retain much. The analysis itself is good - it opens with quite a lot of background on French politics from around 1960 onwards, with specific emphasis on the 1980s and 1990s, and then moves to consider the fall of the traditional parties, the rise of the FN and the political programme put in place by Emmanuel Macron since his election. All this is accompanied by graphics and stats, which are well-placed and break up the text nicely. It gave a solid background on recent French political history, but overall, reading it was kind of a slog.

[Möhre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die bisher beste Analyse zum Kollaps des französischen Parteiensystem. Manche Thesen sind meiner Meinung nach etwas wackelig. Im Ganzen ist es aber eine starke tiefgehende Analyse.
Die Autoren setzen ab der Präsidentschaft Mittérands an. Sie beschreiben die Änderung der sozialen Basis der verschiedenen Blöcke die die Parteien wählen.

[Matthew Williamson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting at times but sightly repetitive. Readers with a larger understanding of French political history will almost certainly take more than I was able to.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

An analysis of modern French politics that will, unfortunately, only continue to age like a French wine.

[Angelo Vieira · Rating 5 out of 5]

L'analyse la plus précise de la situation politique française

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure if it's the translation, the structure or the excessive wordiness, but I found some of this quite difficult to follow. Why use 10 words when 400 will do?

[Jared Palencia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read but gets very boring plus small font does not help with enjoyability.