From Rescue to Rupture: Understanding Change in French Labour Market Policy Daniel Clegg University of Edinburgh Bruno Palier CEVIPOF

Preliminary remarks Building on the advertised paper –The ‘Bismarckian’ model of activation (Clasen and Clegg, 2006; Clegg, 2007) Compensation at the core, activation at the margins An institutionalised (?) duality pf provision for unemployed Result of institutionalised power of ‘industrial actors’ French case as archetypal This paper focuses specifically on French case –To look more at the politics of change –To seek to explain changes beyond the margins

Plan Recent policy background Theoretical background Policy story –Separate insurance and solidarity –‘Instrumentalise’ solidarity –From new instruments to new policy logics Conclusions

Policy background Since May 2007 “un bouquet de réformes tout azimuts” (Barbier, 2009) –Fusion ANPE-UNEDIC –Droits et devoirs des démandeurs d’emploi New sanctions regime, stricter definition of suitable work –RSA replaces RMI Activating changes that can no longer be described as marginal

Theoretical background (1) ‘We need a hero’, part 1 Large traditional literature on particular French immobilism as a result of elite failure –Smith – France let down by its leaders –Schmidt – lack of an appropriate reform discourse –And... Sarkozy – the need for a ‘rupture’ with the timidity of the past

Theoretical background (2) ‘We need a hero’, part 2 Emergent literature on scope for ‘transformational incrementalism’ –Including contribution by my co-author Strong on mechanisms, less strong on causes But general (and problematic) agreement that an institutional entrepreneur must ‘get the reform ball rolling’ and carry it onwards –Streeck and Thelen, Campbell, Crouch...

Policy story (1) Separate insurance and solidarity Paritaire unemployment insurance becomes overburdened by labour shedding in context of high unemployment Social partners find agreement to restrict benefits through reinforcement of insurance mechanisms –Interests of core clientele + preservation of paritarisme But (esp. unions) need state to take over labour shedding functions And have to present this as protection for ‘new risks’ that UI could not be expected to cope with

Policy story (2) ‘Instrumentalise’ solidarity Special employment contracts (esp. from 1983) –Initially mainly in public sector RMI (introduced 1988) –With an ‘insertion’ element Both policies have a promotional design and rhetoric attached, but an unacknowledged labour shedding / basic protection function

Policy story (3) From new instruments to new policy logics Largely as a result of (inevitably negative) evaluations against the rhetorical benchmark of ‘promotion’ ‘Technical’ case for more change Public sector special measures → private sector special measures → generalised reductions in labour costs Insertion → intéressement → low wage subsidisation (PPE then RSA) From social treatment and insertion to activation and incentives

Conclusions Yes, there has been an incremental transformation that prepared the ground for a ‘big hero’ But no, this process was not initiated and promoted by ‘mini heroes’ –Dynamic instead created by ‘conservative’ actors seeking new ways of meeting their multiple existing goals Esp. unions: labour shedding + defence of paritarisme –And dynamic of change carried forward by tension between form/rhetoric and function of new instruments Institutional change stories don’t need heroes, big or little...