> I think there's some truth to that, and I think it's a real problem with
> the European left. Nostalgia for social democracy in its nation-state
> form just strengthens those who argue for 'moderate' reforms to maintain
> what is 'reasonable' in the welfare state. This leads to means-testing,
> workfare, and the rest of the administrative apparatus of the society of
> control. Nostalgia for the old welfare state also blocks attempts to
> fight for a _new_ form of social welfare, whichh isn't quite so
> hospitable to the demands of capitalism.
>
Nostalgia is a yearning for some past state of things. As I understand it, the French welfare state, though eroded, is still largely in place. There has been no Reagan or Thatcher in France, no defeated air-traffic controllers' or miners' strikes. In fact, French public workers succeeded ten years ago in bringing down Alain Juppe when he tried to introduce comprehensive austerity measures. The battle is still going on, as evidenced by Raffarin's attempts to repeal the 35-hour week, the recent abolition of the Pentacost holiday and the resulting strikes, and the Bolkestein directive, which tried to exempt contract workers from low-wage European countries from French wage laws. (French workers don't seem to have anything against Polish plumbers as long as they are paid French wages, which I'm sure Poles would also welcome.) The majority of French voters understood, correctly in my opinion, that the Constitution would further enable such attacks. They voted not for a return to the past, but for a national status quo which favors them in many ways. This is one reason why the vote broke down along definite class lines, with only the wealthiest departments voting "oui." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20050601/a26e4f5e/attachment.htm>