Why France has something to fight for

FRANCE - Strikes and protests over changes to job laws in France have been pounced upon by critics as signs of a country desperately trying to hold back the tide of globalisation to preserve its outmoded welfare state traditions.

The sharpest comments have come from conservative media in Britain and the United States, which have long predicted the downfall of France's protective socio-economic model.

They see the labour reform - in which employers can hire a person under 26 and fire them without explanation during the first two years of employment - as a commonsense measure that will ease joblessness.

To reject it, as several million French did in strikes, is the sign of a country blind to its own decline.

There is mass public support in France for cradle-to-grave welfare and for a powerful interventionist state. Much is based on fear of globalisation and Anglo-Saxon liberalism, a kneejerk term for Britain and the US, considered to be competitive jungles where firms hire and fire at whim.

But some say that to describe France as a country in isolation is folly, that the economy is more flexible and successful than critics say, and the row over the labour law has far more to do with democratic accountability than the legislation itself.

"No other people in Europe fights the new world of today with such stubbornness," says Alain Duhamel, political commentator with the daily Liberation. "The French do not want regressive reforms. They see that their model is shaky, in agony, but refuse to add insecurities to insecurities."

"They are trying to gain time. They view liberalism as an executioner whom they beg to grant them a few minutes' extra grace."

The the state is still the biggest employer and economic force, but the private sector is successful, flexible and highly productive.

The infrastructure and education system are top notch. It has vast political influence as a founder member of the EU, the G8 and the UN.

Nor is the country isolationist despite its fears about globalisation. Unlike in Britain, where Little Englanders abound in the Tory Party, no politician has ever gained traction by pushing the Fortress France idea.

"How could anyone do this? One job in four private sector jobs depends on exports and the country attracts more foreign investment than anywhere else in Europe," said Duhamel.

Paris-based US columnist William Pfaff believes the tensions caused by globalisation in France are yet to be fully felt elsewhere. "The crucial effect is it puts labour in competition with the poorest countries on earth"

"In the longer term, there may be more serious political implications in this than even France's politicised students suspect. What today seems reactionary might prove prophetic."

Even many of the country's reformers still think the French system salvageable. They point to Germany, whose economy is in a similar position and is making long-awaited incremental changes to its welfare system. Scandinavia has done best, bolstering welfare states while retaining global competitiveness.

Even so, Zaki Laidi, of the Centre for International Studies and Research, says France has a painful task if follows suit, and the biggest area in need of reform is the political.

Laidi says the present mess can be pinned to a Bonapartist streak in the Government's right and left, which try to impose important changes quickly with insufficient consultation.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin drew up the labour law and had it passed by decree as a quick fix for jobless immigrant youths who rioted in suburban estates last year.

As a result, says Laidi, the plans lacked accountability and popular endorsement, and such changes are doomed without the seal of democracy.