> Still, such mealy-mouthed dissembling says a lot about the prevailing political culture...
Maybe. But Sarkozy's warm and fuzzy pleas for civility (rhetoric) coexist with politics (action) that wants to decrease pension payments (and raise the requirements for receiving them), add health-care user fees, implement CPE-style labor laws, and, of course, tighten migration policies, among other things. This is all stuff that U.S. politics can really get behind and doesn't have a lot to do with increasing happiness and well-being. Sarkozy may feel compelled by France's political culture to say certain things, but he doesn't feel compelled to act on them.