8 Comments

I would have more sympathy for the fiscal case for Macron's reforms if he hadn't already cut taxes - including scrapping France's wealth tax - and if he weren't trying to cut taxes on corporations. I also worry that both the reforms and the manner in which they were passed will empower both the far left and the far right. It would not surprise me if the second-round choice in the 2027 presidential election were between Le Pen and Mélenchon.

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The French demand early retirement, cradle to grave government support, good wine, good bread, a nice enough house with some land.

Sounds good. How to pay for it has always been the problem.

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I'd only add one point to an otherwise well thought through essay. The tension between Sieyes excellent quote (“The citizens who appoint representatives must forfeit the right to make laws themselves.”) and the harsh but accurate characterization of "legislating from the streets" is an essential part of representative democracy.

French law rightly allows actions like that taken under article 49-3 as a safety valve for controversial but correct or necessary changes that inevitably inflame citizens who have no interest in the economic arithmetic. I expect Macron and the legislature all understood this: Everyone took the public political positions they needed to, fairly confident that Macron would survive the mandated no-confidence votes.

But a properly functioning democratic republic makes sure that the people's voice is not suppressed, even if it's irresponsible. The protests are a needed test of how strong and sustained that voice is.

The author hints at some irony when he notes that the unionists' typically hyperbolic claim of "Let's block everything!" is subjectively understandable because "A 'just' law trumps all mere legality." But the sheer naivete of the union overstatement obviates the need for the scare quotes around "just." Serious political opposition in the streets can survive its extremists if enough people over a long enough time feel so strongly that they cannot be ignored. Even unreasonable but deeply felt demands (perhaps Brexit is an example) have to be respected and dealt with.

Many protests burn themselves out. If their elected leaders are astute at reading public opinion, they can make a good guess at which issues will survive some protest and which won't.

But they don't have to be perfect in their guesswork. Ask Benjamin Netanyahu. He eventually got the message that he'd guessed wrong, and backed off. He'll probably come back with a similar proposal, I imagine, and we'll see how that works out as well. The back-and-forth between leaders and their public in these public experiments is a sign of strength.

In the worst cases, some of the best politicians are willing to do the right thing and lose their job for it. Macron seems able to accept that. In that sense, he might be doing the executive version of civil disobedience, paying the price for doing what's necessary. That only makes me have more respect for him.

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Please correct my numbers if I am wrong. In the United States, public expenditure is about 26% of GDP with Social Security and Medicare taking up 5% and 3%, respectively, of that total. In France according to the author, public expenditure is 59% of GDP. The US is not France, but we could be there in the not too distant future. However, the real problem for a nation state is when operating and redistribution expenses soak up larger and larger percentages of public expenditure leaving little for investment. A nation that does not, cannot, or will not invest in itself is on its way to oligarchy.

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Both Plato & Aristotle believed that “direct democracy” was the worst form of government … & they were referencing the Athenian Ecclesia, not street mobs

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One solution is in liquid democracy = mixed representation and direct democratic voting every month

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It is important to understand that the average public retirement pension in France is quite generous, nearly three times the purchasing power of our average Social Security Retirement benefit. Retirees expect to be able to live on these benefits. Thus the public expenditure is quite high. Other Western European public retirement benefits also provide a similar level of income to retirees although these countries have all raised the retirement age.

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