French art

The visual and plastic arts of France have had an unprecedented diversity — from the Gothic cathedral of Chartres to Georges de la Tour’s night scenes to Monet’s “Waterlilies” and finally to Duchamp’s radical “Fontaine” — and have exerted an unparalleled influence on world cultural production. To cover the vastness of the subject, the French art article has been divided into a series of separate articles navigatible through the template to the right. One can also directly access French art category indexes, such as alphabetical lists of painters or sculptors. For those searching for artists from a particular period or art movements, the relatively comprehensive manual lists of painters and artistic movements in chronological order are recommended.

Art museums in France

Paris
Musee du Louvre
Musee d’Orsay - 19th century art (national collection)
Centre Pompidou (Beaubourg) - 20th century art (national collection)
Musee national du Moyen age (Musee de Cluny) - medieval collection
Palais de Tokyo - 20th century art
Musee Guimet - Asian art
Grand Palais - changing expositions
Petit Palais
Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume - changing expositions
Musee Picasso - the artist
Musee Rodin - the sculptor
Musee Zadkine - the sculptor
Fondation Dubuffet - the sculptor and painter
Musee Carnavalet - Paris and the 17th century in a former mansion
Musee Jacquemart-Andre - private collection from the renaissance to the 19th century
Fondation Cartier - contemporary Art
Centre National de la photographie
Musee Bourdelle - the sculptor
Musee Dapper - African art
Musee Gustave Moreau - the symbolist painter
Manufacture des Gobelins - tapestries and weaving from the 17th century
Musee Nissim de Camondo - private collection of 18th century works
Musee Maillol - Fondation Dina Vierny - the sculptor
Maison Europeenne de la Photographie
Musee de Ceramique a Sevres
Musee du Montparnasse

Culture of France

The culture of France is diverse, reflecting regional differences as well as the influence of recent immigration. France has played an important role for centuries as a cultural center, with Paris as a world center of high culture.

Schools

Since the era of Jules Ferry, the prime minister and Minister of Education, all state-funded schools before university are free, obligatory and laïque, meaning separate from the church.

Lifestyle

At the beginning of the 20th century, France was a largely rural country with somewhat conservative Catholic morals. However, in the course of the century, major changes have occurred: the countryside has become largely depopulated, and the population has largely become de-christianized. This has led to important changes in social morals.

Religion

Traditionally a predominantly Roman Catholic country, with anticlerical leanings, France is since the 1970s a very secular country. However, public holidays are still largely traditional Catholic holidays; and knowledge of facts about the history of Catholicism (for instance, the attribute of saints) is considered normal for an educated person. The French generally consider that since the 1905 law of separation of Church and State, they have struck an excellent balance between the rights of religious people and the neutrality of public institutions with respect to religious matters, summarized in the concept of laïcite.

Social and political outlook

The French maintain a strong gap between civilian life and religion. Religion is considered as private as possible, and it is considered offensively inquisitive to enter religious discussions in most contexts. Communautarisme — that is, the forming of ethnic or religious communities separate from mainstream life —, though present, is considered undesirable. French people in general are opposed to clerical power and its influence in policy; the separation of religion from government power is legally referred to as laïcite. French politicians, with the exception of a few right-wing politicians such as Christine Boutin, generally do not discuss their religious positions, and do not use religious arguments in political advocacy.

Islamic fundamentalism is considered as a real threat for the cohesion of the French society. Reasons for tensions include the desire of certain imams or other Muslims not to abide by French laws, regulations and customs. Following cases of conflicts about Muslim girls breaching school dress regulations or refusing to attend certain classes, the French government adopted a statute prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols in public primary and secondary schools; see French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools. These tensions echo earlier quarrels with respect to the influence of the Catholic church in French society (clericalism vs laïcite) and the influence of the Pope in French public affairs (gallicanism vs ultramontanism).

The French public and government pay attention to certain minority religious groups, considered as “cults” (sectes). This is particularly the case since a much-publicized 1995 of mass murders and suicides inside the Order of the Solar Temple. Public concerns include the well-being and education of children in cults that isolate themselves from the community; the advocacy of medical practices generally considered hazardous; the defrauding of members by greedy leaders; and sexual abuse. Such concerns have resulted in the foundation of commissions charged with the monitoring of possibly dangerous “cults”, as well as the enactment of legislation easing the prosecution of criminal organizations. See French legislation for the prevention and repression of cultic groups that infringe on human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Legal status

Following from the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, France guarantees freedom of religion as a constitutional right and the government generally respects this right in practice. A long history of violent conflict between religious groups led the state to break its ties to the Catholic Church early in the last century and adopt a strong commitment to maintaining a totally secular public sector. Of the country’s 10 national holidays, 5 are Christian holidays.

A 1905 law instituted the separation of Church and State and prohibited the government from recognising, salarying or subsidising any religion. In the preceding situation, established 1801-1808 of the Concordat, the State used to support the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church, the Calvinist Church and the Jewish religion and provided for public religious educations in those religions. For historical reasons, this situation is still current in Alsace-Moselle, where the national government salaries clergy from those four religions as state civil servants, and provides for non-compulsory religious education in those religions in public schools and universities. Also, for similar historical reasons, in French Guiana, Catholic priests are civil servants of the local government.

Religious buildings built prior to 1905 at taxpayers’ expenses are retained by the local and national government, but may be used at no expense by religious organizations. As a consequence, most Catholic churches are owned by the government. The government, since 1905, has been prohibited from funding the building of any newer building; accordingly, newer churches and synagogues are built from private funds.

Islam, mostly practiced by immigrants from former French colonies in Northern Africa and their descendants, is now the second religion in France. An ongoing problem is the lack of adequate prayer facilities for Muslim inhabitants. Muslims have no pre-1905 publicly built edifices, and thus must build and support all religious buildings at their own expense. Some local governments de facto subsidize prayer rooms as part as greater “cultural associations”. An ongoing topic of controversy is whether the separation of Church and State should be weakened so that the government should be able to subsidize Muslim prayer rooms and the formation of imams. Advocates of such measures, such as Nicolas Sarkozy, declare that they would incite the Muslim population to better integrate into the fabric of French society. Opponents contend that the state should not fund religions. Furthermore, the state ban on wearing conspicuous religious symbols, such as the islamic female headscarf, in public schools has alienated some French Muslims, provoked minor street protests and drawn some international criticism.

Religious organizations are not required to register, but may if they wish to apply for tax-exempt status or to gain official recognition. The 1901 and 1905 laws define two categories under which religious groups may register: “associations cultuelles” (associations of worship, which are exempt from certain taxes) and “associations culturelles” (cultural associations, which are not exempt from these taxes). Associations in these two categories are subject to certain management and financial disclosure requirements. An association of worship may organize only religious activities, loosely defined as liturgical services and practices. A cultural association may engage in profit-making activity. Although a cultural association is not exempt from taxes, it may receive government subsidies for its cultural and educational operations, such as schools. Religious groups normally register under both of these categories; the Mormons, for example, run strictly religious activities through its association of worship and operate a school under its cultural association.

Under the 1905 statute, religious groups must apply with the local prefecture to be recognized as an association of worship and receive tax-exempt status. The prefecture reviews the submitted documentation regarding the association’s purpose for existence. To qualify, the group’s purpose must be solely the practice of some form of religious ritual. Printing publications, employing a board president, or running a school may disqualify a group from receiving tax-exempt status.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, 109 of 1,138 Protestant associations, 15 of 147 Jewish associations, and approximately 30 of 1,050 Muslim associations have tax-free status. Approximately 100 Catholic associations are tax-exempt; a representative of the Ministry of Interior reports that the number of nontax-exempt Catholic associations is too numerous to estimate accurately. More than 50 associations of the Jehovah’s Witnesses have tax-free status.

According to the 1905 law, associations of worship are not taxed on the donations that they receive. However, the prefecture may decide to review a group’s status if the association receives a large donation or legacy that comes to the attention of the tax authorities. If the prefecture determines that the association is not in fact in conformity with the 1905 law, its status may be changed, and it may be required to pay taxes at a rate of 60 percent on the present and past donations that fall within a legal category close to that of inheritance. (original text from a report from the US Department of State)
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Education in France

The French educational system is highly centralized, organized, and ramified. It is divided into three stages:
primary education (enseignement primaire);
secondary education (enseignement secondaire);
tertiary or college education (enseignement superieur)

Primary and secondary education is predominantly public (private schools also exist, in particular a strong nationwide network of primary and secondary Catholic education), while tertiary education has both public and private elements.

History

While the French trace the development of their educational system to Charlemagne, the modern era of French education begins at the end of the nineteenth century. Jules Ferry, a lawyer holding the office of Minister of Public Instruction in the 1880s, is widely credited for creating the modern Republican school (l’ecole republicaine) by requiring all children under the age of 15 — boys and girls — to attend. He also made public instruction free of charge and secular (laïc).

Organisation

All educational programs in France are regulated by the Ministry of National Education (officially called Ministere de l’education nationale, de l’enseignement superieur et de la recherche). The head of the ministry is the Minister of National Education, one of the highest-ranking officials in the cabinet. As of August 2005, the Minister is Gilles de Robien.

The teachers in public primary and secondary schools are all state civil servants, making the ministere the largest employer in the country. Professors and researchers in France’s universities are also employed by the state.

At the primary and secondary levels, the curricula is the same for all French students in a given grade, in public and semi-public (or subsidized) institutions. However, there exist specialized sections and a variety of options that students can choose. The reference for all French educators is the Bulletin officiel de l’education nationale, de l’enseignement superieur et de la recherche (B.O.) which lists all current programs and teaching directives. It is amended many times every year.

Find B.O. archives on the Ministry’s official website

Academie system

The French territory is divided into 35 academies, 26 of which are located in mainland France and 9 in French overseas territories. One academie often spans a few departements, the most commonly used administrative unit in France. Academies also cover French schools located abroad so that the Lycee Français Charles de Gaulle in London, for example, falls under the jurisdiction of the Lille academie.

The academie headquarters (termed rectorat) is usually located in the largest city in the concerned territory. It is headed by a recteur. The main responsibility of the academie is to manage personnel and state budgets pertaining to the education system. It serves as a link between regional specificities and the centralized governing body in Paris. It ensures the implementation of the official educational programs produced by the Ministry.

At one level down in the national education hierarchy, each departement also has its own inspection academique, headed by an inspecteur d’academie.

Note that the academie, as an education-based territorial unit, has no relation with l’Academie française, the authoritative body concerning the French language.

School calendar

In the Metropolitan territory, the school year extends from early-September to early-July. Most students have finished their year by Bastille Day, 14 July. The school calendar is standardized throughout the country, and is the sole domain of the ministry.

For the 2005-2006 school year, the first day of classes across the country is 2 September. The year ends on 4 July.

In French overseas departments and territories, the school calendar is set by the local recteur.

Major holiday breaks are as follows:
All Saints (la Toussaint), one and a half weeks around the end of October and the beginning of November;
Christmas (Noel), two weeks around Christmas Day and New Year’s Day;
winter (hiver), two weeks starting in mid-February;
spring (printemps), two weeks starting in mid-April;
summer (ete), two months starting in early-July.

All Saints, Christmas and summer vacations occur simultaneously across the country. For the winter and spring breaks, the country is divided into three zones (A, B, and C) and each zone’s vacation dates are shifted by one or two weeks to prevent families from crowding up in popular destinations such as ski and seashore resorts.

Primary education

Schooling in France is mandatory as of age 6, the first year of primary school. Many parents start sending their children earlier though, around age 3 as kindergarten classes (maternelle) are usually affiliated to a borough’s primary school. Some even start earlier at age 2 in pre-maternelle classes, which are essentially daycare centres. The last year of maternelle, grande section is an important step in the educational process as it is the year in which pupils are introduced to reading.

After kindergarten, the young students move on to primary school. It is in the first year (cours preparatoire) that they will learn to write and perfect their reading skills. Much akin to other educational systems, French primary school students usually have a single teacher (or perhaps two) who instructs in many different disciplines, such as French, mathematics, natural sciences, history and geography to name a few (the latter two are seldom separated). Note that the French word for a teacher at the primary school level is instituteur, or its feminine form institutrice.

Religious instruction is not supplied by public schools. Laïcite (a term referring to the separation of church and state) is one of the main precepts of the French republic. Pupils therefore have civics courses to teach them about la Republique, its function, its organization, and its famous motto Liberte, egalite, fraternite (Freedom, equality, brotherhood).

In a March 2004 ruling, the French government banned all “conspicuous religious symbols” from schools and other public institutions with the intent of preventing proselitization and to foster a sense of tolerance among ethnic groups. The law was not welcomed by all though, and some religious and libertarian groups showed their opposition saying the law hindered the freedom of religion, as protected by the French constitution.

Secondary education
French secondary education is divided into two schools:
the college (somewhat comparable to U.S. junior high school) for the first four years directly following primary school;
the lycee (comparable to a U.S. high school) for the next three years.

The completion of secondary studies leads to the baccalaureat. (more…)

Languages of France

There are a number of languages of France, although the French language is by far the most widely spoken and the only official language of the country. However, several historical regional languages are still spoken to varying degrees. Some of them are sometimes called patois, but this term (roughly meaning dialect) is sometimes considered derogatory. The real importance of local languages remains subject to debate. Several other languages are spoken by a substantial percentage of the population due to immigration.

Government outlook

The official language of the French Republic is French (art. 2 of the French Constitution), and the French government is, by law, compelled to communicate primarily in French. The government, furthermore, mandates that commercial advertising should be available in French (though it can also be featured in other languages); see Toubon Law. The French government, however, does not mandate the usage of French in non-commercial publications by private individuals or corporations.

In April 2001, the Minister of Education, Jack Lang, admitted formally that for more than two centuries, the political powers of the French government had repressed regional languages, and announced that bilingual education would, for the first time, be recognized, and bilingual teachers recruited in French public schools.

The 1999 Report written for the French government by Bernard Cerquiglini identified 75 languages that would qualify for recognition under the government’s proposed ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. 24 of those languages are indigenous to the European territory of the state, while all the others are from overseas areas of the French Republic (in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean and South America).

The topic of the teaching of regional languages in public primary and secondary schools is controversial. Proponents of the measure state that it would be necessary for the preservation of those languages and to show respect to the local culture. Opponents contend that local languages are often non-standardized (thus making curricula difficult), of dubious practical usefulness (since most are spoken by a small number of people, without any sizable corpus of publications) and that the curriculum and funding of public schools are already too strained. The topic also leads to wider controversial questions of autonomy of the regions.

Although ratification was blocked by the Constitutional Council as contradicting the Fifth Republic’s constitutional provision enshrining French as the language of the Republic, the government continues to recognise regional and minority languages to a limited extent (without granting them official status) and the Delegation generale a la langue française has acquired the additional function of observing and studying the languages of France and has had “et aux langues de France” added to its title.

Certain of the languages of France are also cross-border languages (for example, Basque, Catalan, Picard, Norman, Franco-Provençal, Flemish, Occitan and others), some of which enjoy a recognised or official status in the respective neighbouring state or territory. (more…)

Demographics of France

Since prehistoric times, France has been a crossroads of trade, migrations, and invasions. Four basic European ethnic stocks - pre-Celtic, Celtic (Gallic and Breton), Latin, and Germanic (Franks, Visigoths, Burgundians, Vikings) - have blended over the centuries to make up its present population. Besides these “historic” populations, new populations have migrated to France since the 19th century: Belgians, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Poles, Armenians, Jews from Eastern Europe and the Maghreb, Arabs and Berbers from the Maghreb, Black Africans, and Chinese people, to list only the most prominent.

It is currently estimated that about 40% of the French population descends in varying amounts from these different waves of migrations, making France the most ethnically diverse country of Europe, despite the still popular stereotypes of France as an essentially Gallic country. Nevertheless, the immigrants from other European countries have an easier time blending in, while the non-European groups tend to assimilate at a slower pace, because of greater cultural barriers and social discrimination.

Population

Starting with the 19th century, the historical evolution of the population in France has been extremely atypical in the Western World. Unlike the rest of Europe, France did not experience a strong population growth in the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. On the other hand, it experienced a much stronger growth in the second half of the 20th century than the rest of Europe or indeed its own growth in the previous centuries.

After 1974, France’s population growth stalled, and reached its nadir in the 1990s with only 0.39% annual growth, being now more in tune with the rest of Europe, which has entered demographic decline. However, first results from the 2004 French census have greatly surprised demographers. The census revealed that population growth rebounded significantly after the 1999 census, something nobody had anticipated. From 1999 to 2003, annual population growth was 0.58%. In 2004, population growth was 0.68%, almost reaching North American levels. 2004 was the year with the highest increase in French population since 1974.

France is now well ahead of all other European countries (except for the Republic of Ireland). In 2003, France’s natural population growth (excluding immigration) was responsible for almost all the natural growth in European population: the population of the European Union increased by 216,000 inhabitants (without immigration), of which 211,000 was the increase in France’s population alone, and 5,000 was the increase in all the other countries of the EU combined. In 2004 the natural increase in France’s population reached 256,000, but figures for other European countries are not available yet.

These unexpected results bear great consequences for the future. At the moment, France is the third most populous country of Europe, behind Russia and Germany. By 2050, demographers initially thought the population of metropolitan France would be 64 million inhabitants, but they now agree that their estimates were too conservative, being based on the 1990s growth rate of population. Demographers now estimate that by 2050 metropolitan France’s population will be 75 million, at which time it will be the most populated country of the European Union, above Germany (71 million), the United Kingdom (59 million), and Italy (43 million) ([7], [8], [9]). If these estimates become reality, it may fundamentally alter the balance of power in Brussels. It would be the first time since the 1860s that France is the nation with the largest population within Europe (Russia excluded). In mid-2004 the EU had 460 million inhabitants, 13.6% of whom were living in France (including overseas departements). By 2050 it is estimated that the population of the European Union (of the current 25 members) will have declined to 445 million inhabitants, of whom 17.5% will be living in France.

According to the UNHCR, the number of people seeking political asylum in France rose by around 3 % between 2003 and 2004, while in the same period, the number of asylum applications submitted in the United States fell by about 29 %. France thereby replaced the United States as the world’s top destination for asylum-seekers in 2004.

A perennial political issue concerns rural depopulation. Over the period 1960-1999 fifteen rural departements experienced a decline in population. In the most extreme case, the population of Creuse fell by 24%.

Languages

The sole official language of France is French. However, several regional languages (including Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Flemish, Franco-Provençal dialects, Gascon, Lorraine German dialect, Norman, Occitan, and some Oïl dialects - e.g., Picard) are also occasionally understood and spoken, mostly by elderly people. Also several creole languages are spoken in overseas departments. However, the French government and state school system discouraged the use of any of those languages until recently. These historical regional languages have been known as patois, though this has been considered depreciative. They are now taught at some schools, though French remains the only official language in use by the government, local or national. Some languages spoken by immigrants are also frequently spoken, especially in large cities: Portuguese, Maghreb Arabic, several Berber languages, several languages of Sub-Saharan Africa, Turkish, several spoken variants of Chinese (most notably Wu, Cantonese, Min Nan, and Mandarin), Vietnamese, and Khmer are the most frequently spoken.

Statistics

At the 1999 census, INSEE sampled 380,000 adult people all across Metropolitan France, and asked them questions about their family situation. One of the questions was about the languages that their parents spoke with them before the age of 5. This is the first time serious statistics were computed about the proportion of mother tongues in France. The results were published in Enquete familiale, Insee, 1999.

Here is a list of the nine most prominent mother tongues in France based on Enquete familiale. It is important to read the notes at the Languages of France article in order to correctly interpret the numbers.

Cities

The principal cities by population include:

Aix-en-Provence, Ajaccio, Albi, Amiens, Angers, Angouleme, Bastia, Belfort, Besançon, Bordeaux, Brest, Caen, Calais, Cannes, Carcassonne, Charleville-Mezieres, Clermont-Ferrand, Colmar, Dijon, Dunkerque, Evreux, Grenoble, La Rochelle, Le Havre, Le Mans, Lille, Limoges, Lyon, Marseille, Metz, Montpellier, Mulhouse, Nancy, Nantes, Nice, Nîmes, Orleans, Paris, Perpignan, Poitiers, Quimper, Reims, Rennes, Roubaix, Rouen, Saint-Etienne, Saint-Nazaire, Strasbourg, Tarbes, Toulon, Toulouse, Tourcoing, Tours and Valence.

Historical overview

Middle Ages to 20th century

Starting around 1800, the historical evolution of the population in France has been extremely atypical in the Western World. Unlike the rest of Europe, France did not experience a strong population growth in the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. The birth rate in France diminished much earlier than in the rest of Europe. Consequently, population growth was quite slow in the 19th century, and the nadir was reached in the first half of the 20th century when France, surrounded by the rapidly growing populations of Germany and the United Kingdom, experienced virtually zero growth. (more…)

Economy of France

With a GDP of 1.7 trillion euros (1.7×1012 €; 2005 data), France is the fifth largest economy in the world in USD exchange-rate terms and the seventh largest by purchasing power parity. According to World Bank and IMF figures, it is the third largest in Europe after Germany and the United Kingdom.

It has substantial agricultural resources, a large industrial base, and a highly skilled work force. A dynamic services sector accounts for an increasingly large share of economic activity (72% in 1997) and is responsible for nearly all job creation in recent years. GDP growth averaged 2% between 1994 and 1998, with 3% recorded in 2000. Stagnant GDP growth, creeping unemployment, and a trade deficit have characterised a malaise in the French economy since the global economic downturn.

Government economic policy aims to promote investment and domestic growth in a stable fiscal and monetary environment. Creating jobs and reducing the high unemployment rate has been a top priority. In the 1990s, unemployment fell from 10% to 8-9%, although this has since rebounded to double digits because of the 2001 US recession, but currently, unemployment is hovering just below 10%. France joined 10 other European Union countries in adopting the euro as its currency in January 1999. Since then, monetary policy has been set by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt.

Dirigisme and decline of dirigisme

Following the Second World War, Fifth Republic, France embarked on an ambitious and mostly very successful program of modernization, under state impulse and coordination. This program of dirigisme, mostly implemented by right-wing governments, involved the state control of a minority of the industry, such as transportation, energy and telecommunication infrastructures, as well as various incentives for private corporations to merge or engage in certain projects.

However, dirigisme came to be highly contested after 1981 when newly elected Socialist president François Mitterrand called for more control over the means of production nationalizing many industries and private banks. By 1983 with the initial bad economic results the government decided to renounce dirigisme and start the era of rigueur (”rigour”) or corporatization. As a result the government largely retreated from economic intervention; dirigisme has now essentially receded though some of its traits remain.

Despite significant privatization over the past 15 years, the government continues to control a large share of economic activity: Government spending, at 53% of GDP in 2000, is the highest in the G-7. Labour conditions and wages are highly regulated. The government continues to own shares in corporations in a range of sectors, including banking, energy production and distribution, automobiles, transportation, and telecommunications.

Workforce and social relations

The French government intervenes in workforce relations in two ways:
through statutes and regulates issued by the national government, supplemented by a heavy body of jurisprudence;
through the enforcement of collective conventions resulting from bargaining between employers’ and employees’ unions.

The government imposes an hourly minimum wage (SMIC) of 8.03 €.

Unemployment is a permanent concern of French governments since the end of the 1970s. Unemployment problem is the main topic of the 2007 presidential election in France. However, some economists think the unemployment will drop by itself when the baby boom generation retires from 2009 to 2020. See below for a discussion on the current measures against unemployment.

Working hours

Legislation passed in 1998 shortened the legal workweek from 39 to 35 hours effective January 1, 2000. A key objective of the legislation is to encourage job creation, for which significant new subsidies will be made available. It is difficult to assess the impact of workweek reduction on growth and jobs since many of the key economic parameters, such as the impact on labour costs and company’s ability to reorganize work schedules, will depend on the outcome of labour-management negotiations which should extend through 2000 and beyond. See 35-hour workweek.

The conservative government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin is trying as of 2004 to enact more exemptions from this law.

Unions and strikes

Membership in France’s labour unions accounts for less than 10% of the private sector workforce (in 2003, 8.2% of the workforce [1]) and is concentrated in the education, manufacturing, transportation, and heavy industry sectors. Most unions are affiliated with one of the competing national federations, the largest and most powerful of which are the CGT, FO, and CFDT.

French unions are fairly weak in general, and strikes are uncommon in most of the economy (see France: a nation of strikers?). On the other hand, unions are powerful in some parts of the public sector. This is especially true of public transportation (SNCF national railways, RATP Paris transit authority, air traffic control…), where strikes have an instant effect on the general public and attract the attention of the national and foreign press.

In the case of the private sector, the weakness of the unions often leads to their calling for the government to intervene in workforce conflicts. Another issue is that unions compete between themselves; this occasionally leads to power struggles in some areas where they are powerful, even degenerating into strikes.

Current issues

Unemployment

France is infamous for its high chronic unemployment rate which has persisted since the 1970s; a number of attempts have been made to curb the unemployment rate.

Generally speaking, since the election of Jacques Chirac to the presidency in 2002, the successive cabinets of Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Dominique de Villepin, have tried some moderately “liberal” approach: remove or weaken workforce legislation and lower payroll contributions in order to stimulate employment.

When he was appointed Prime Minister in May 2005, Dominique de Villepin imposed himself a one hundred day deadline to implement policies for job creation. De Villepin has said that his policies will focus on “finding jobs where there are”, in other words, helping micro-enterprises (businesses with fewer than 10 employees) that are struggling to expand due to financial disincentives and helping the unemployed back into work. The Government of Dominique de Villepin has implemented several measures to promote job creation:
Financial incentives
Income tax cut totaling 3.5 billion €.
Encouraging unemployed young adults to work in sectors with labor shortages (i.e.: hotel industry, restaurants, etc.) by offering them a 1000 Pound Sterling tax cut.
Offering a one-off financial incentive of 1000 Pound Sterling to a long-term unemployed person who finds a job.
Cutting taxes and Social Security contributions for businesses that hire apprentices.
Cutting taxes and Social Security contributions for businesses that provide “face-to-face” services (i.e.: haidressers at home, helping the elderly, childcare).
Removing a “fine” for businesses that sack seniors.
Creation of new employment contracts

The French Government has found it necessary to introduce new types of contracts to help those who are most likely to find themselves unemployed, especially young adults.
The “First Employment Contract” (or CNE in French, meaning Contrat Premiere Embauche) concerns businesses with more than 20 employees who want to hire young adults young than 26 years old. The two beneficiaries of this new employment contract will employers and young adults. Employers will pay less Social Security contributions for 3 years and will be able to dismiss their employee at will for the first two years of the contract. Young adults will benefit from the “CPE” as they will gain working experience in their chosen field.In the event of a termination of the contract, the employee will receive government assistance and small financial compensation from their employers

The “New Employment Contract” (or CNE, meaning Contrat Nouvelle Embauche) concerns micro-enterprises (business with less than 10 employees). It rewards employers who want to rapidly expand the size of their business by reducing Social Security contributions, eliminating financial disincentives to growth and by reducing the amount of paperwork associated with hiring employees. During the first two years of the contract, the employee is exempted from unfair dismissal cover and will receive government assistance in case of dismissal.
Other measures
Reducing administrative procedures and paperwork associated with hiring more people for micro-enterprises.
Encouraging unemployed and unqualified young adults to work in the army to learn new skills.

Left-wing parties and unions have criticised Dominique de Villepin’s policies because they believe that jobs created will be insecure and poorly-paid. Recently, outraged university students and unions have demonstrated in cities around France in opposition to the CPE and CNE contracts. Despite this, more than 60% of the French people have rallied behind their Prime Minister.

Budgetary reform

The conservative governments of Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Dominque de Villepin, since Jacques Chirac’s election in 2002, have had to face increasing budget deficits for the State and Social Security budgets. In both cases, this government had reduced taxes or contributions. The government also increased military spending.

The government and its supporters contend that longer-term prospects of the economy demand that the retirement age should be raised, unemployment and retirement benefits should be cut, and that the national health insurance regimes should be reformed to cut costs.

Opponents, mostly from left-wing parties but also, to a lesser extent, from the Union for French Democracy (a centrist party in the ruling coalition), contend that the proposed reforms are not good for the country and thus rightly opposed by the population. According to them, Raffarin’s reforms and spending choices hit hard on working-class people and those preparing the future of the country, such as scientific researchers, while the government squanders public money on special interests through subsidies and tax cuts. They also contend that the alleged tax cuts are, in fact, effective transfers of spending from national to local taxes. In March 2004, the regional elections were a severe blow to Raffarin.

In 2001, the French Parliament passed the “LOLF” (Loi d’orientation sur les lois de finances), a law which greatly reformed the way the budget was passed, executed and audited. The implementation of LOLF is phased, and the main dispositions will first be applied in 2006. LOLF imposes that spending should be allocated to identifiable and auditable “missions”, which better feedback to those who voted the budget about the efficiency of spending. It is yet too early to gauge the efficiency of this law.

Sectors of the economy

Industry

France has been very successful in developing dynamic telecommunications, aerospace, and weapons sectors. (more…)