All Eyes on France

Tomorrow, the French will go to the polls and make a crucial decision for the future of their country. Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative candidate, is running against Segolene Royal, the Socialist Party candidate, for President. Most French elections over the last 40 years have dealt with who can make the State and its welfare system work better. This one is unique in that Sarkozy is the first real candidate to call for a departure from the welfare state. He believes the French economy must be liberated from the bureaucratic clutches of State control and the "Eurosclerosis" that has infected its people. He's a staunch supporter of America and Bush, something unheard of in Europe these days, and even more shocking is the fact that the polls show he actually has a chance of winning.

My gut reaction here is that I obviously want Sarkozy to win. I want the French to have those same opportunities afforded by the type of thriving, vibrant, individualist economy that America has had since the early 1980's. A rising tide lifts all boats, and there's no reason why anyone should be deprived of being able to work more than 35 hours per week if they so choose. There's no reason why a small business owner should be deprived of the right to fire a lazy, inefficient worker to make his enterprise more productive. There's no reason why everyone should be forced to rely on the State for their material and social well-being. There's simply no reason why the French and all other victims of Eurosclerosis shouldn't be allowed to thrive and prosper like the rest of the free world has been doing for the last 25 years.

But at the same time, I'm not sure Sarkozy would have a mandate to govern, because the pendulum has not completely swung in France yet. The vast majority of citizens there still support the entitlements and regulations that are in place today. Most voters still say in poll after poll that they think the State should play a central role in people's economic well-being, most say that the American and British economic models support greed and should not be emulated, most still believe that collectivism is the way to go. For these reasons, I think it may make more since for Royal to prevail. Let the French be wrong, as they have every right to be. Let them suffer from more unemployment, protectionism and heavy-handed government control. Let them endure more labor riots that bring the economy to a virtual stand-still every summer.

My point is that, in order for free enterprise to thrive in France, there must first be a catharsis reached among the people: the same kind of catharsis that America reached under Carter in the late 70s and that Britain reached under the Labour government during the winter of discontent in 1979. The success of Sarkozy's candidacy over the last half-year shows that maybe such a catharsis has already been reached to some extent, but the polls show that France still has along way to go before it unhesitatingly opens its arms to capitalism.