Why has modernizing the French model proved so difficult?
The problem is that politicians do not trust the French people, so they do not want to explain why they are proposing these reforms. They do not try to involve the French population. For instance, many reforms are adopted in August and, you know, August is a holiday in France and no one is around. That’s a typical example of the way the French elite conceive change. “We have to change without telling the French because they will not be able to accept the change.” And you see in the news the French protests. But, actually, if you look at the labor market transformation, the type of capitalism implemented in France, the type of firms that are here, France is also changing a lot, and quite successfully. But the problem is we don’t recognize it. And we don’t have the political dynamism.
