Posted Sunday, April 14, 2002; 15.05GMT
True, such efforts have not prevented increasing numbers of French families and businesses from bolting the urban centers for the less cluttered spaces of the French west, southwest and Mediterranean coast. But there too the state is at work to ease the transition (see box). "Economic, infrastructure, and business development were orchestrated nationally to prevent certain regions from being overlooked," Rochefort notes. "Because of that, people and businesses know they can improve their quality of life by moving to provincial areas, yet find the same variety and quality of services. Today, you can choose where you want to live, rather than where you're able to work."

And the state makes sure that French citizens have that freedom of choice. Whether it's free education, generously subsidized daycare, a universal health system ranking among the world's best or family allowances open to nearly anyone, the French take pride in public services that spring from a centrally organized, collectively financed system of solidarité. "French public services reflect a social ideal of all-for-one that conservatives and leftists alike call their own," says Manuel Valls, Socialist mayor of the Paris suburb Evry. "They're far from perfect, but they're there for everyone."

The same kind of collective give-and-take was behind France's 35-hour workweek, a popular measure designed to provide existing employees more time for what many French consider their "real" lives — i.e. free time — but also to create nearly 250,000 new jobs so far. Though initially denounced by business owners, the reduction, some studies indicate, has made labor markets more flexible. Despite working less, France continues to draw the Continent's highest level of foreign direct investment. The French stay competitive through lower salaries that help compensate for higher corporate taxes and employee-related social charges. And French productivity-per-hour rates surpass those of both the U.S. and the U.K. But the French devotion to solidarité may not be tenable in the long term. The state-owned rail company SNCF, for example, lost money in three of the last four years while offering an excellent, affordable service on little-used lines as well as high-speed tgv routes. Similarly, state financing of the extra leisure time and added jobs attributed to the reduced workweek cost an estimated 110.8 billion of state financing in 2000 and 115.2 billion last year — a figure representing a third of all income taxes collected. To many, the solution to France's public spending binge lies in demographic change. Over the next 10 years, millions of baby boomers — and over 800,000 of the 5.5 million public-sector employees — will retire. Conservative presidential candidate Jacques Chirac has called the aging curve "a golden opportunity" to reduce the state sector painlessly — but will either he or his political rivals actually seize it? Highly unionized civil servants wanting to safeguard their jobs and pass them to future generations not only noisily strike, they also vote. So, too, does the service-loving French public that appears convinced that size does matter. "Reducing the global number of public-sector workers is not only a priority in itself," says former Socialist Finance Minister and potential Prime Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn. "Our goal is to cut waste, increase efficiency and quality of services provided, and to deploy new hires on hospital staffs, police forces and teaching positions where they're needed."

Even if the state does downsize, acknowledges Jacques Bille, a liberal-leaning business leader, the nation's fondness for its public services means "France will always have a larger state administration and higher taxes." Of course, good public services depend on good economic growth. But given the recent downturn, any future government would be unwise to count on tomorrow's growth to pay for today's expenditures. In the end, simple mathematics could force the French to accept a smaller state that provides only what it can afford, and to contain their joie de vivre within more narrow means.

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