Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-wpx69 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-05T00:31:59.243Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - A Conservative Welfare State Regime without Christian Democracy? The French État-Providence, 1880–1960

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2010

Kees van Kersbergen
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Philip Manow
Affiliation:
Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany
Get access

Summary

INTRODUCTION

In many respects, the French welfare state resembles the Bismarckian blueprint of a conservative regime type: wage-deducted contributions and wage-related benefits, a fragmentation of social insurance schemes along occupational lines, and the predominance of funds (caisses) managed according to principles of self-administration (gestion par les intéressés, démocratie sociale), with the prominent participation of unions. The French É tat-providence also shares many of the problems that plague the continental welfare state today: runaway costs; adverse labor market effects due to high nonwage labor costs leading to poor job growth, especially in low productivity services; and low employment ratios as a result of generous early retirement schemes. Like its continental counterparts, the French welfare state is also often perceived as being ‘immovable’ and ‘frozen’ because it largely resists any political attempts at reform (but see Palier 2000).

In the comparative literature, the French welfare state has usually been classified as a conservative, continental, Catholic, or Bismarckian regime (Esping-Andersen 1990; Huber et al. 1993; Huber and Stephens 2001; Scharpf and Schmidt 2001; Palier and Martin 2007). However, it sits somewhat uneasily with this classification. In fact, the French Étatprovidence is not particularly conservative, patriarchic, or Catholic when it comes to family policy (Morgan 2002, 2003, Chapter 3, this volume; Talmy 1962), and its strong emphasis on universal social assistance has a much more ‘Beveridgian’ than ‘Bismarckian’ flavor to it (Levy 2000: 312–313).

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×