|
The conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy has won France¡¯s presidential election. The pro-U.S. Sarkozy captured 53.1 percent of the votes, defeating socialist Segolene Royal who won 49.6 percent. The election was a face-off between growth vs. welfare, free market vs. state control.
In a nutshell, Sarkozy¡¯s election pledge was ¡°work harder, earn more.¡± He vowed to make it possible for labor and management to extend the current 35-hour workweek, introduced by the Socialist government, through mutual agreement. He also promised to implement market-centered, growth-first policies such as lowering property and inheritance taxes, while easing employment rules that have made it difficult to lay off workers.
In contrast, Royal¡¯s election motto was that a more righteous France meant a stronger France. In order to narrow the gap between the rich and poor, she sought to raise the minimum wage, while boosting unemployment benefits and welfare coverage. She had vowed to implement traditional leftwing state-centered, welfare-led policies.
In the race between the two candidates, the people of France sided with Sarkozy. So far, the French had used violent protests to counter government moves to lower pension payouts or attempts for labor market reforms that would make layoffs easier. But this time, the French public chose the opposite. That¡¯s because of the heightened sense of crisis in France, which has degenerated into the ¡°sick man¡± of Europe.
Among European nations, France was the most tenacious in hanging on to the old-style welfare state model. As a result, its gross national income slid to 19th place from eighth in 1982, while contracting the so-called ¡°French disease¡± manifested by a youth unemployment rate of more than 22 percent. Government expenditures, which accounted for 54 percent of gross domestic product, damaged private sector competitiveness and pulled down France¡¯s share of the global export market from 5.4 percent in 1999 to 4.3 percent in 2005.
Since the 1980s, the U.S. and U.K. embarked on reforms to lower the government¡¯s welfare burden and boost vitality in the financial markets and the private sector, while promoting growth and creating jobs. Germany and other European nations followed suit in the late 1990s and belatedly France has joined in. What would the French, who have entered rehab to cure the ¡°welfare disease¡±, think when they see Korea lauding the ¡°European model" they have just abandoned?
|
