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4 - Skinny Politics

Reforming Alone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2023

Jonah D. Levy
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
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Summary

Chapter 4 analyzes the institutional factors fueling the contestation of economic liberalization. The dirigiste model was rooted in the premise that top-down governance, free of interference by interest groups, offered the best way to modernize the country. The institutions of the Fifth Republic reinforced this exclusionary orientation by centralizing power in the executive. While France’s top-down or “skinny” approach may be effective when governments are extending popular new benefits, it is problematic when they are trying to avoid blame for unpopular measures, as is generally the case with economic liberalization, since with concentrated power comes concentrated accountability. Despite this problem, Chapter 4 shows that French authorities have refused to break with skinny politics. In the late 1990s, the “social refoundation” tried to shift reform away from the contested political arena to negotiations among the social partners but was blocked by governments of left and right alike. Finally, through analyses of liberalizing initiatives during Chirac’s second presidency and the case of French pension reform, Chapter 4 shows that skinny politics almost invariably triggers popular contestation and, even when successful, tends to yield half-measures that antagonize the populace without fixing the fiscal and economic problems that motivated action in the first place.

Type
Chapter
Information
Contested Liberalization
Historical Legacies and Contemporary Conflict in France
, pp. 131 - 168
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Skinny Politics
  • Jonah D. Levy, University of California, Berkeley
  • Book: Contested Liberalization
  • Online publication: 06 April 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009283311.004
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  • Skinny Politics
  • Jonah D. Levy, University of California, Berkeley
  • Book: Contested Liberalization
  • Online publication: 06 April 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009283311.004
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Skinny Politics
  • Jonah D. Levy, University of California, Berkeley
  • Book: Contested Liberalization
  • Online publication: 06 April 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009283311.004
Available formats
×