Is the Left better in government than in opposition?

Daniel Cohen says yes, referring to the recent French experience in particular. But I wonder if there is something more general to it.

Let us start with a paradox: the Left is better in office than in the opposition. Despite a programme on ideology (the nationalisations in 1981 and the 35-hour work week in 1997), the Left in power demonstrated solid pragmatism. It was the Left that orchestrated the disinflation of the 1980s, which the Right had not been able to do. It was the Left that gained France entry into the euro ten years later. During the last 25 years, it is under Centre-left governments that economic growth has been the strongest.

The Left is less talented in the opposition. The nationalisation program of the 1980s was a half-hearted compromise with the then powerful communist party. The emblematic legislation of the Jospin Government, the 35-hour work week, was added to its programme in extremis when the anticipated legislative elections were called by President Chirac. The failure of Jospin in 2002 was largely due to the absence of a convincing programme, just as Ségolène Royal’s failure was mostly because her proposed agenda was difficult to decipher.

Cohen has also some wise things to say on how the old model of regulation, favored by the Left, is unlikely to do much to redress social inequities.

If the Left’s problem is neither its practice in government nor its ambitions, then where does it reside? It can be found in the difficulty of renovating its thoughts on the proper instruments to be used. The Left remains a prisoner of a sequence according to which regulating the economy is key to correct inequalities. Now, that equation is invalid twice over. First, it is more and more difficult to regulate the economy. Second, even if this were possible, the result would no longer suffice to attenuate the new social inequalities.
The point is worth stressing. Yesterday, the economy was a means of social integration. Today, it no longer is. In the language of economists, the old equilibrium between the markets and firms (hierarchies) has been shattered in favour of the markets. Outsourcing is only an extreme and visible form of a more profound process in which systematic recourse to subcontracting is the model. New capitalism externalises any job that can be externalised, thus scientifically dismantling the former industrial landscape. Nationalising the companies in the CAC 40 today would not have any significant impact on workers’ living conditions. In today’s world, small and medium-sized companies create new jobs, large firms destroy existing ones.

And the lesson:

A political boulevard lies open before the French Left. Never have social inequalities appeared so threatening, whatever the sphere – professional careers, urban segregation, wealth, etc. However, the last election shows that the Left cannot only rely on the mistakes of the Right to return to power. It needs a new deal for addressing the challenges that it faces. The issue is not to reconcile the Left with the market: that was done long ago. It is to favour active programmes towards persons rather than trying to regulate the way firms operate. It is to decouple public policies and the public sector. Simple things, it would seem, but critical ones that could enable the French Left to become "modern".

Comments

[Incredulous of Sussex]

I'm not sure we can transfer Mr Cohen's conclusions from the specific case of France to a more general statement. We only need look at the British experience and see that the Left's sheer incompetance in both opposition and government has led to it's extinction* from nearly all areas of mainstream politics.

*Well, it's at least on the endangered species list, somewhere near the Giant Panda but without the captive breeding programme...

[happyjuggler0]

Volker showed the world that disinflation was possible, and enough agents in the market had finally read and digested Milton Friedman (or Ned Phelps') idea that inflation is a monetary phenomenon. Those agents forced the hand of every government in the world, Left or Right, to disinflate. Those that chose not to progressively lost access to financial markets.

In other words giving the Socialists in France in the 80's credit for disinflation where the alleged Right before them had failed is absurd. The time had come, and whoever was in office would've had no choice.

[Henri Tournyol du Clos]

I always am an avid reader of Daniel Cohen's op-ed pieces in Le Monde and of his books (or rather, I suppose, of his endless re-writing of the same gnostic economics book). I listen to him in the morning each time he graces France Culture with his presence. His way of presenting things is always stimulating.

Here, however, I fear he has let himself be carried away by wishful thinking. Basically, he ascribes a bright future to the modern equivalent of Neanderthal Man.

The French left is not part of a Sapiens species. It globally - and I mean its voters, not only its party workers - is bogged down in some hopeless revolutionary ideal, born in the 18th century and comforted by Marx in the 19th. Reality cannot have a hold on that fantasy world. It recognises no enemy on its left - quite the contrary, the extreme left is the "pure" left, untouched by dealings with impure capitalism/markets/other abominations.

The French left's reforming capabilities are extremely circumstancial. In 1981-83, it came to power after a long eclipse and MASSIVELY blew it. Nationalisations galore, reflation, etc. They ignored the oil price boom and the war on inflation that were going on. After two and a half years of sheer madness, reality caught up, and the choice was basically between a 180° about turn and chaos out of the EEC. Discredited to the core, they then embarked on an ambitious modernization program in order to stay a political force. For the best part of the next 20 years, each time they were in power, they remembered that lesson and used their Left credentials to push through discreetly quite a few reforms the French right, were it not only a vast special interest lobby, would not have been allowed to even contemplate. But that strategy was fundamentally alienating their voters in that fantasy world of theirs. In 2002, the Socialist party vanished in the 1st round of voting after having led a capable, modernizing government for 5 years. In 2005, to boot, Socialist voters shot themselves in the other foot and said No to the European constitution.

Politics being by nature pendular, I would say that for the next 10 years, at least, you can forget that reasonable, modernizing government left dear to Mr Cohen and only expect the loony kind in France.

[Marcos Ancelovici]

Cohen's point has to be understood as part of long debate in the French Socialist Party (PS). The more the PS looses elections, the more a renewal appears unavoidable. I discuss several scenarios for a renewal of the PS on my blog: http://mancelovici.wordpress.com/2007/06/13/how-to-save-the-french-socialist-party/

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That strategy was fundamentally alienating their voters in that fantasy world of theirs. I

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