April 23, 2007

French Election: Left vs. Lefter

This past weekend, France voted in yet another attention grabbing presidential election. While he was a candidate, right wing extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen was not the most controversial figure on the ballot. This year, it is Segolene Royal, Socialist and first female contender for the position.

If there is one thing that American and French political cultures share, it is a deep division over a woman seeking power. Yet from an American point of view, the difference in opinion over gender may be the most profound the French have.

In comparison, the leaders entering the final election represent different areas on the political spectrum – left and . . . lefter.

Not to dismiss or mitigate the importance of the issues facing the French people, but to an outsider they are at times almost undistinguishable. For example, the role of the welfare state, a phrase no smart American politician will ever use in public, is the leading concern in the election.

The question of whether there should even be a welfare state is still very pertinent and much discussed on this side of the Atlantic. Although it varies from election to election, the candidate’s position on abortion, military spending and gay marriage tend to be the hot-button issues. Elections in this country are not decided by education spending.

Some of the key promises put forth by the French presidential hopefuls, on the other hand, concern private rent caps in housing and tough, clearly libertarian-spirited reforms like cutting the benefits for those rejecting work and giving the citizens the right, yes, a right, to work more than 35 hours a week.

Somehow, it is difficult to imagine Hillary and Barak, and much less one of the two and, say, John McCain, have a heated debate about whether we should permit people to work overtime. There would be some heated discussion over who should have a permit to work and how much of the wages should go to the state. Nevertheless, no American politician is going to try to protect her constituents from seeking employment and contributing to the economy.

It is therefore confusing and amusing at the same time to read European news sources that hail an upcoming battle between the right and the left. You get to the last paragraph and think, “How convenient! The liberal media got only one side of the story again!”

That is not to say that the French election should be taken lightly. The country’s reliance on nuclear power and increasing intensity of squabbles with the European Union have led some candidates to propose the creation of a Mediterranean Union that would include France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Cyprus. The omission of Turkey is not accidental. Thus, some issues familiar to the American voter, including strained relations with a predominantly Muslim country and a female commander-in-chief, are also on the agenda.

Watching France grapple with these topics may be an interesting learning experience for us. The stark differences between the French and American political cultures may provide us with examples of what we should not do given the distinction, bringing us closer to determining what we should.