When Parties Do Not Matter. French Employment Policies in Times of Crisis

This paper studies the recent changes that characterized the French decision-making process in the field of employment policies. It shows that, since the law of 2007 on social dialogue, policy-making is a result of negotiations among social partners more than political parties competition. This evolution has led to a weakening influence of political parties on the content of employment policies at the expenses of rising political conflicts among social partners (both employers’ and employees’ representatives).

Employment policy has not been a central issue in the 2012 presidential campaign and conflicts among political parties have also not been crucial during the decision-making process that has led to the last employment policy law on employment security (June 2013). Adopting process-tracing as a qualitative method to analyze policy reforms, this paper also shows that, despite government alternation, the content and the direction of employment policies have remained unchanged. As its right-wing predecessor, the socialist government elected in 2012 has increased flexibility on the labor markets more than it has developed security for the workers. Since then, the most recent developments of employment policies have confirmed the commitment of socialist leaders to make labor markets more flexible. Also, the disappointment of trade-unions as regards the minor developments of employment security under a left-wing government has strengthened conflicts among social partners.