Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T04:22:07.190Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Jupiter’s Limits

From Initial Achievements to the Yellow Vest Crisis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2023

Jonah D. Levy
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
Get access

Summary

Chapter 5 applies the argument of this book to the beginning of the Macron presidency. Initially, Macron implemented a series of liberalizing reforms, notably of taxation, collective bargaining, and the national railways, often over the opposition of strikers and demonstrators. However, after just eighteen months in office, simmering resentment erupted into the so-called yellow vest protests, a movement against higher gasoline taxes that spiraled into a broader contestation of the government itself. Chapter 5 shows that both the social anesthesia state and skinny politics contributed to the yellow vest movement. In a context of scarce fiscal resources due to the social anesthesia state, Macron’s desire to bolster French business through tax cuts while reducing France’s budget deficit necessarily entailed tax increases and cutbacks in public and social services for the general population. Further fueling contestation, Macron adopted an extreme form of skinny politics, disdaining negotiations with political elites and the social partners, and imposing reforms from above. The combination of unpopular reform, much of it liberal in nature, and skinny politics sparked the yellow vest protests. In the end, the yellow vests forced Macron to backtrack from his agenda, sent his approval ratings plummeting, and weakened his capacity to govern.

Type
Chapter
Information
Contested Liberalization
Historical Legacies and Contemporary Conflict in France
, pp. 169 - 196
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Jupiter’s Limits
  • Jonah D. Levy, University of California, Berkeley
  • Book: Contested Liberalization
  • Online publication: 06 April 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009283311.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

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 Dropbox.

  • Jupiter’s Limits
  • Jonah D. Levy, University of California, Berkeley
  • Book: Contested Liberalization
  • Online publication: 06 April 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009283311.005
Available formats
×

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.

  • Jupiter’s Limits
  • Jonah D. Levy, University of California, Berkeley
  • Book: Contested Liberalization
  • Online publication: 06 April 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009283311.005
Available formats
×