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CIA-RDP86S00588R000100140001-3
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May 1, 1985
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 Directorate of Intelligence Under the Socialists France: Institutional Change Gonfidential EUR 85-10077 May 1985 360 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 France: Institutional Change Under the Socialists Western Europe Division, EURA, on This paper was prepared byl Office of European Analysis. Comments and queries are welcome and may be directed to the Chief, Confidential EUR 85-10077 May 1985 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 o_a-_?w~ nrvouvate ui n l Conhide ti Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 (ontidential France: Institutional Change Under The Socialists Key Judgments French Socialists have failed to carry out the sweeping institutional Information available reforms that they promised when they won a massive presidential and as of1 April 1985 legislative mandate in 1981. They have nationalized some industries, but was used in this report. other changes fall far short of revolutionizing basic French institutions- most of all government. Some attempts to change the system have failed; some have been severely watered down; others have merely continued policies begun under former President Giscard and even de Gaulle: ? President Mitterrand has devolved significant powers and responsibilities from the state-appointed prefects to local councils; much of the potential for greater local autonomy implicit in his reforms, however, remains unrealized for want of tax resources to back them up. We believe that budgetary constraints will prevent Mitterrand from following through in this area. ? Partisan maneuvering and the inertia of tradition have undermined announced Socialist intentions to free French television and radio from government control. Mitterrand's attempt to break up press trusts, moreover, miscarried when many leftists realized that the proposed laws endangered their own media interests. ? Socialist plans to reshape French education also have either languished or misfired; most important, massive public protests and opposition even within leftist ranks forced Mitterrand to retreat from efforts to secularize private schools-an emotion-charged and longstanding leftist goal. In our view, French Socialists are unlikely to attempt further significant in- stitutional reforms. Most leftists appear more interested in fine-tuning the modest changes already made-especially in the economy-in order to improve their record of success in time for the 1986 legislative elections and the 1988 presidential contest. The Socialists have already had a go at most of the reforms on their agenda, and those remaining would be controversial enough to distract the government's attention from bread- and-butter issues that Mitterrand knows will determine the outcome of the elections. Socialists are proposing a change in the national electoral system, but partisan calculations appear to have limited their efforts in this direction. The changes that Mitterrand recently proposed will probably not disrupt the stability of the political system as much as his opponents have speculated and will not improve significantly the prospects for the French Communist Party, Mitterrand's rival for votes on the left. iii Confidential EUR 85-10077 May 1985 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86S00588R000100140001-3 Confidential Although conservatives stand a good chance of winning the legislative elections next year, we believe that they will back down on most of their threats to roll back the limited reforms the Socialists have enacted. Widespread public acceptance of government direction of the economy and the dearth of potential buyers for ailing national companies will, in our view, limit denationalizations. Other Socialist innovations, like decentral- ization, have built on the policies of centrist and conservative administra- tions and are popular even with rightwing voters. Socialist exposure to the realities of government is likely to benefit the United States to the degree that it has forced the French left to jettison shopworn ideology and to adopt a more pragmatic attitude toward the problems of governing and management. In our view, the sobering impact of these failed attempts at institutional reform, together with the early economic failures, has pushed France's non-Communist left toward the center of the political spectrum and has discredited extremist rhetoric within Socialist ranks. This greater sense of moderation and realism may have positive repercussions, especially on France's sometimes difficult bilateral relations with the United States. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86S00588R000100140001-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 i-onnaenuai Blueprint for Change 3 A Significant First Step 6 Freeing Television and Radio 6 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86S00588R000100140001-3 Confidential France: Institutional Change Under the Socialists French Socialists rolled to power in 1981 on a wave of promises to enact sweeping and fundamental institu- tional changes in French society. Long years in the political wilderness during the Fourth Republic and the Gaullist era had prompted them to devise a program of institutional reform that promised to give ordinary people greater control over government (au- togestion). Many of the Socialists' proposals-such as secularization of education-sprang directly from long Socialist and Republican traditions; others de- rived from the decade-old Common Program that the Socialists had negotiated with the Communist Party (PCF) in 1972. A few were invented during the 1981 election campaign and reflected the personal predilec- tions of Francois Mitterrand, the first Socialist presi- dent of postwar France. One month after Mitterrand ousted the centrists and Gaullists from the Elysee, National Assembly elections gave Socialists a legisla- tive mandate to enact their ambitions. This analysis focuses on four categories of institution- al reform that figured prominently in Socialist plans and promises prior to the 1981 elections-decentral- ization, media, education, and the electoral and con- stitutional system. It examines the extent of some of the most important changes that they have made thus far, assesses prospects for further changes before the left faces crucial legislative elections in 1986 and the presidential contest in 1988, and speculates on how lasting the changes will be. The new Mitterrand government moved quickly to negotiate nationalization agreements with arms and steel companies in the fall of 1981 and secured legislation to absorb five major industrial groups, two financial holding companies, and several banks by early 1982. It also pushed through negotiations to take over French subsidiaries of ITT and Honeywell. By mid-1982, the government had doubled its share of the industrial sector to about 30 percent and well above this mark in such key industries as nonferrous metals (66 percent, compared with a previous 16 percent), chemicals (52 percent, up from 16 percent), and electronics (42 percent from less than 5 percent). The government also took over three cooperative and 36 private banks, and assumed the minority shares of three seminationalized banks (Credit Lyonais, Ban- que Nationale de Paris, and Societe Generale)- bringing more than 90 percent of French banking under direct government ownership. Remaining private-sector domestic and foreign banks account for only 3.2 percent of deposits and 7.4 percent of loans. Socialists also passed legislation establishing worker councils in each factory. Although the councils are only advisory, companies must consult them on im- portant matters such as reductions in the work force of various plants The French presidential election of May 1981 stimu- lated an unusual amount of debate, evoking numerous promises from both sides about the future of French society. Mitterrand and the Socialists shaped the election debate around a carefully prepared leftist agenda for change, forcing President Giscard d'Esta- ing to speak to these issues. Although Mitterrand 25X1 25X1 25X1 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86S00588R000100140001-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 Confidential himself seldom spoke in specifics, party tracts concen- trated on defining a detailed program for reforming France-especially its institutions.' Mitterrand suc- ceeded in making "change" the focus of the election and in stirring enthusiasm-even among centrist vot- ers-for the reforms his party promised. In their campaign for the legislative election one month later, Socialists called for a complete mandate to fulfill the popular desire for change implicit in Mitterrand's victory. In both campaigns the Socialists promised to: ? Nationalize basic industries and introduce an un- precedented degree of worker participation in management. ? Decentralize government by transferring substantial power and fiscal resources to regional and depart- mental governments. ? Secularize the educational system, while opening admissions to all institutions-especially the univer- sities and the professional training schools (grandes ecoles) that are favored recruiting grounds for gov- ernment and commercial elites. ? Decentralize the media, opening the door to private- ly owned local radio stations and enforce the law against press conglomerates. ? Reform the political system to ensure greater voter control, largely by reducing the presidential term from seven to five years and by introducing a proportional voting system In assuming office, Mitterrand quickly set about nationalizing firms and implementing other elements of the Common Program adopted by the leftist coali- tion. Partisan rhetoric on both sides reinforced the impression that the Socialists really were out to change the institutional fabric of French life. Social- ists, moreover, characteristically laced their post- election promises with extremist language: they con- demned "collaboration" with "class enemies"; ' Two campaign documents recited virtually the entire litany of changes from the Socialist tradition: the party's Socialist Plan for France in the Eighties (1980) and Mitterrand's 110 Propositions for QUANb IF, SERAt t'ReSima, L.,t 000 '. "When I'm President, everything will be possible. France has been a highly centralized state since the mid-17th century, when Cardinal Richelieu-and, after him, Mazarin and Louis XIV-broke the power of the regional nobility and installed royal agents to supervise municipal and provincial governments. Successive regimes refined this administrative struc- ture, and after the Revolution of 1789-which actu- ally furthered centralization-Napoleon decreed the administrative apparatus based on prefects that France largely retains today. Municipal and regional councils of France's 96 met- ropolitan departments are governed directly from Paris through a system of administrative guardian- ship. Prefects-civil servants of the Ministry of Interior-not only supervise the affairs of popularly elected local assemblies, but also have complete responsibility for maintaining public order and en- forcing laws in their departments. Prefects and their staff supervise the financial affairs of local govern- ments, whose budgets are submitted for Paris's ap- proval before they are considered in councils, and in recent years have provided badly needed technical- administrative expertise to local government. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 ' onnuenuai respected voices within the party called not simply for social reforms but for "destroying" the existing op- pressive institutions; others talked about "heads rol- ling." Mitterrand made decentralization the first order of business of the new Parliament, declaring that France needed "a decentralized authority in order to preserve itself." His determination to decentralize was partly a response to the frustrations of Socialist mayors and other local leaders who had often complained of being stymied by national governments. Decentralization also had resonance with the electorate, since opinion polls suggested that a solid majority of Frenchmen agree that France had become over centralized. Final- ly, it was also ideological; many Socialists in the 1970s developed the conviction that, whether in the factory or in politics, Socialism ought to push for greater self-management-more local control over local affairs. Blueprint for Change The loi Defferre-named after Gaston Defferre, the powerful Socialist mayor of Marseille whom Mitter- rand appointed to head the significantly renamed Ministry of Interior and Decentralization-was the first of nine laws and 50 decentralizing decrees en- acted after the legislative election in 1981. Together they have partially dismantled the highly centralized administrative structure of the French state-a sys- tem of scrutiny and direction from Paris, popularly called la tutelle, that the French had accepted for over 200 years as a given of their political system. In essence, decentralization a la Mitterrand devolved power from the departmental and regional prefects to the local councils. It transformed prefects into more benign "Commissioners of the Republic" and desig- nated them coordinators between Paris and the more powerful local entities. Commissioners also doubled as representatives of the government's interests in the regional assemblies. Executive decisionmaking powers Gaston Defferre, Former Min- ister of Interior and Decentral- were transferred to the presidents of regional assem- blies and to mayors. Without restructuring local government, the decentralization legislation: 25X1 25X1 ? Expanded substantially areas of self-management enjoyed by municipalities, departments, and re- gions. Municipalities, for example, now have control over urbanization; they can issue building permits and devise their own comprehensive zoning and 25X1 development plans. Regions, on the other hand, have gained greater budgetary oversight and some con- trol over regional universities. ? Redirected lines of authority, giving the depart- ments control over some communal affairs and giving regional assemblies some oversight of both. Departments, for example, gained important control over distribution of government block grants to municipalities. ? Made elections to regional assemblies direct and introduced a measure of proportional representation into communal elections (for cities with a population 25X1 of over 5,000). Other measures restricted concurrent officeholding from a maximum of five to three offices. ? Refined the system of revenue sharing between Paris and local governments, most importantly by expanding the types of local projects for which shared funds are allocated and by increasing the allocations for some categories of projects. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 Confidential Figure 1 French Administrative Structure - Direct control of all functions - Direct control of some functions - No formal control (represents) LH Departmental Prefect Minister of Finance Departmental Council Regional Commis- sioner of the Republic Commissioner of the Republic Departmental Council H Municipal Councils Although the departmental Commissioners retained Tradition and Redtape authority over local police and military affairs, the As is so often the case in France, however, laws alone legislation generally freed municipal governments do not provide a clear picture of what is really from a priori prefectural "tutelage" and, most impor- happening. Numerous press and US Embassy reports tant, gave local executives more authority over spend- ing revenues earmarked for local use. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86S00588R000100140001-3 Confidential have pointed out that the Socialist experiment in decentralization is less revolutionary than it at first appears: ? The government has been forced to backtrack on some intended reforms. ? Other reforms do not represent dramatic change over past practice. ? Some reforms, moreover, have been severely wa- tered down in practice. The most significant example of backtracking is the controversial and aborted effort to reform Parisian government. According to a wide variety of press reports, the Socialists intended to redistribute local power from the office of the mayor, where it was traditionally concentrated, to the city's district (arron- dissement) councils. Popular Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac charged partisan politics and orchestrated so much local and national opposition that Mitterrand decided to shelve the proposal-which, in any case, would have enhanced the local power of the right. Nor were the much-vaunted reforms in the prefectur- al system revolutionary. Although prefects certainly had more potential power in the past, they seldom used it as heavyhandedly as the reforms implied. According to local political officials cited in both the press and academic studies (based on the opinions of both rightist and leftist politicians), moreover, the new Commissioners do about the same things they did as prefects. Le Monde suggested early in the decentral- ization crusade that the prefects had been made "to disappear in order to better reappear." Numerous local officials in the Norman department of the Calvados-an industrialized area with several large towns and generally leftist governments-recently confirmed this view to academic interviewers.' Most tellingly, the Socialists have hesitated to turn over sufficient revenues to make the increased author- ity of local governments real, at least according to statements by many local officials. The Mitterrand ] "I can assure you," said the longtime mayor of an important Norman city, "that Caen has not suffered from the tutelle as long as I have been mayor. We have been able to do what we want. The only time the Prefect ever vetoed one of our projects came when we wanted to expand a building that would have destroyed the view government has tried to hold down tax increases, while boosting nationally administered programs- such as military modernization, job retraining, and industrial research and development. This has meant that Paris has had to hang on to revenues that might have been turned over to local governments. Mean- while, locally controlled sources of revenue remain as limited as under previous governments and shared revenues from Paris have lagged behind the transfer of responsibilities and functions Several additional features of the fiscal administra- tion also call the radical character of the Socialist reforms into question: ? In the first place, the Socialists have merely fol- lowed through or expanded on the system of block grants that was planned and partly implemented by Giscard.' 25X1 25X1 ? Government tax policies, meanwhile, have reduced locally designated and controlled sources of reve- 25X1 nues, while increases in national taxes of various kinds have made it difficult for local governments to do the same. In particular, the government declared a 2-percent reduction in the professional license fee-which is the most important source of local revenue. ? Some officials also complain that the economic crisis-widely blamed on Paris-has further re- duced the revenues for the professional license fee. In replacing the bilateral relationship between local officials and Paris with a more complicated mix of relationships among four levels of government, more- over, the reformers have sown some confusion in 25X1 intergovernmental relations, according to numerous press reports. Regional, departmental, and municipal authorities once had only to worry about their rela- tions with Paris. Now, although they must still con- cern themselves primarily with managing relations ' It was under Giscard, moreover, that substantial central revenues were first redistributed, and that an equalization fund was intro- duced within the grant system to redress inequalities between the way municipalities are taxed and the way block grants are allocat- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86S00588R000100140001-3 7FX1 25X1 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 Confidential with the central government ministries, they must also deal much more with each other. For example, the control and responsibilities that Paris alone once exercised over local planning and budgeting are now shared at least in part by both departmental and regional authorities, as well as by local councils themselves. Decrees that devolved power to local entities have left it to them to work out how best to co- operate in exercising them. The various levels will certainly take years to settle into a new balance of relations, and not without considerable push and tug. A Significant First Step Although the Socialists' record of decentralization is clearly not as revolutionary as it seems at first glance, Mitterrand has made some significant strides-initi- ating changes that almost certainly portend more than they have so far accomplished.' By taking on powerful foes at both the local and national levels, Mitterrand has at least won support for the principle of decentral- ization, a battle that previous governments hesitated to fight. According to US Consulate reports, at a recent opposition-dominated meeting of regional as- sembly presidents, "no one contested the concept or desirability of decentralization." Having long considered themselves the victims of heavyhanded Gaullist manipulation of the state- controlled media, Socialists routinely punctuated party rallies and congresses with calls for radical reorganization and decentralization of television and radio. Over the years, Socialist Party militants de- manded guaranteed leftist access, especially to mana- gerial and programing responsibilities, and called for dismantling the government boards that supervise management appointments in the state-owned media companies.' ' Two recent studies of decentralization both emphasize this point. See Gerard Belorgey, La France decentralisee (Paris : 1984), and a case study of Bordeaux, Les pouvoirs locaux a 1'epreuve de la decentralisation (Paris : 1983), directed by Albert Mabilian. ' Early in his presidency, Giscard, too, had vowed to make radio and television independent of government. In 1974 he broke up the Gaullist media conglomerate known as the Office de Radiodiffu- sion Television Francaise (ORTF), substituting in its place seven media companies. These included three television networks that were supposed to be competitors. However, the functions assigned to each-one, for example, was required to carry large numbers of re iriented programs-soon modified direct competition. Confidential Mitterrand on Reforming the Media Television and radio will be decentralized and pluralist. Local radio stations will be able to estab- lish themselves freely as a public service. Their framework of activities will be established by the local authorities. A national audiovisual council will be created, with the representatives of the state in the minority. Creative activities will be encour- aged. The rights of citizen-band broadcasters will be recognized. The independence of the French Press Agency vis-a-vis the State will be guaranteed. All censoring of information ... will be forbidden. We do not want a purge, but nonetheless a certain number of command controls have to be held by men and women whose views correspond with those of the majority of the country. We must ensure the policies desired by that majority, which we are putting into practice, are really implemented. Freeing Television and Radio In the presidential campaign, Mitterrand said specifi- cally that his administration would make a priority of eliminating government domination of broadcasting media and breaking up the private press monopolies- reforms that together would almost certainly have led to a major restructuring of French media. As presi- dent, Mitterrand named a blue-ribbon committee- headed by Pierre Moinot, the former head of ORTF-to devise changes in French broadcasting. The Moinot Report eventually recommended creating a 60-member, nonpartisan "assembly"-drawn large- ly from business, the professions, and the arts-to supervise broadcasting management and to insulate it thoroughly from government interference. It also ad- vised numerous other changes that one academic study characterized as amounting to "a complete reorganization of French broadcasting." 25X1 4 25X1 25X1 25X1 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 Confidential Jean-Claude Heberle replaced the independent-mind- ed Pierre Desgraupes in December 1984 at the head of France's popular network, Antenne 2. Heberle gained powerful allies among Socialists by producing a friendly documentary about then opposition leader Mitterrand. His appointment, which was widely re- ported to be the result of strong government pressure on the Audiovisual High Authority, placed all three networks in the hands of government sympathizers. Heberle has recently come under fire because of two, apparently forced, resignations at A2. First, longtime news director Albert du Roy quit to join the cable network, CANAL PLUS, amid speculation that polit- ical differences with Heberle figured prominently in his decision. Next, Christine Ockrent-popular an- chorwoman of A2s top-rated evening news-resigned recently, fueling even more speculation that du Roy had been forced out for partisan reasons. Ockrent departed in such a swirl of accusations and intima- tions of political pressure that Heberle at one point threatened to sue her. The independent leftist daily Liberation speculated recently that the Heberle shakeups reflected Mitter- rand's displeasure with the independence of the A2 news team. Other informed observers have seen in them the opening salvos of a possible government effort to bring the network news more into its camp before the crucial elections in 1986 and 1988. In the meantime, however, Socialists acted with parti- san zeal worthy of their rightist predecessors to bring the broadcasting media under greater leftist control. Mitterrand and his ministers persuaded media com- pany managers to resign and, with one or two excep- tions, placed reliable Socialists at the helms. They also appointed Socialists to programing and manage- ment positions and ensured that leftist journalists found positions in the networks. Correct political or union credentials, rather than experience or compe- tence, were often the basis for hiring or firing, according to the US Embassy in Paris. Jean-Claude Heberle, a close friend of Mitterrand, and Herve Bourges, a Socialist militant described by one respect- ed journal as an ardent supporter of UNESCO's repressive "new world information order," now head the two most important television networks. Under pressure from their junior partners in the leftist coalition, Socialists also named Communists to jour- nalistic and management positions in television and radio and appointed a Communist to a new Audiovi- sual High Authority established as an intermediate board between ministers and management. The new High Authority, however, is strictly partisan in com- position and, in any case, has little power to shield management from government or even to enforce its own demands.' Despite partisan appointments and ineffectual at- tempts to insulate the audiovisual media from govern- ment influence, the Socialists have not intervened as blatantly or as often as their predecessors in broad- casting affairs. For example, according to academic studies, Giscard and Michel Poniatowski, his Interior Minister, intervened directly and on numerous occa- sions in the appointments of news personnel in the three networks. Mitterrand has also carried through legislation formally abolishing the government's au- diovisual monopoly and in doing this has presided over two important innovations that probably presage a revolutionary change in French broadcasting: ? The Socialists have legalized and tried to police the behavior of the pirate radio stations that Giscard struggled unsuccessfully to close. Over 1,000 pri- vately owned radio stations are now licensed, ac- cording to press reports (see map). ? The left has also permitted the privately owned, but strictly regulated, cable television service that was planned under the Giscard administration. Al- though the new network is in private hands, the state-owned publicity agency HAVAS owns 42 per- cent of it, and its president is a longtime Mitterrand 6 Mitterrand did establish a 56-member National Audiovisual Council, composed along lines suggested by the Moinot Report, but 25X1 25X1 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP86SO0588R000100140001-3 Confidential Figure 2 Proliferation of Private Radio Stations in France 65 23 _.. s-