The Revenge of History--: Why the Past Endures, a Critique of Francis Fukuyama by Jack Lawrence Luzkow

Author:Jack Lawrence Luzkow [Luzkow, Jack Lawrence]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: philosophy, History & Surveys, General
ISBN: 9780773465022
Google: yRTvAAAAMAAJ
Publisher: Edwin Mellen Press
Published: 2003-11-15T00:13:37.253522+00:00

Chapter 9

France: Revolt against the Elites: Hold Them Accountable

In 1989, in Russia, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the Baltic states, Eastern Europeans were willing to stand up against the colossus, the Soviet Union — after decades of repressive rule.

Poles led the way. They had to act clandestinely sometimes, but they did this by supporting Solidarity, a national union movement led by Lech Walesa. Solidarity meant (eventually) massive public demonstrations. So massive that the government was hardly able to suppress them. Then came free elections and afterwards the electoral victory of Solidarity. When the Russian president, Mikhail Gorbachev, refused to intervene in Poland, it was a signal: the Soviet Union soon collapsed. Communism as an alternative social and economic system vanished.

Since 2008, we have seen another revolution gathering: today it is liberal democracy that is creaking along and that needs serious reform. Spontaneous (mostly) protest has spread to the West, including Britain, France, and Italy. In a massive rebellion against the political establishment, the British voted for Brexit, expressing popular sentiment for exiting the EU — an indication that the political elite had lost its footing. In France, the home of eternal rebellion and social revolution since 1789, the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement has engulfed the country. The French electorate, once enthused by Emmanuel Macron’s promises to solve France’s economic and social woes — and by an apparent alternative to right-wing populism — has now become hugely disaffected. The demands of the gilets jaunes — who have been dismissed by political elites contemptuously as uneducated, bigoted, and out of touch — have received massive support from much of France, which perceives the elites as out of touch.

That is because Macron has acted regally, like a patrician, while supporting policies that have driven up inequality and eroded living standards. In a word, he has expressed disdain for the ordinary folk. He has done this by eliminating the wealth tax, adding a fuel tax (now deleted) that has penalized the poor, levying a new tax on pensions, and he has done little about a stagnant minimum wage.

The French have many grievances that are not shared in common with Americans. They are frustrated by the inability to control illegal immigration (on a different scale than the US), resentful of EU rules that dictate budget restraints (austerity) and put limits on social welfare spending, and they feel threatened by changing moral codes regarding gender issues — all concerns which have only been addressed by right-wing demagogues who know how to exploit such issues. These are all important, but they need not mean xenophobic recidivism.

There are grievances that the French share with many Americans, including Trump supporters. The French reject unregulated (largely) financial markets, neoliberal austerity, and even abject consumerism. In a word, they refuse to accept or to normalize economic liberalism (neoliberalism), a policy they see (many in the US would agree) as targeting them unfairly and removing the social protection that many of the French crave and deserve. They want modernization of their health care system, and many no doubt would like to see the wealth tax restored.

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