1. How History Shaped the Relationship of Between Government and Citizen in Britain and France
Britain and France both suffered from similarly devastating economic difficulties in the
late 1970s and early 1980s, yet the solutions that they implemented were vastly different. The
thaw of the Winter of Discontent brought with it the renewed domination of the Conservative
Party led by Margaret Thatcher, yet the French elected the Socialist François Mitterrand just two
years later. This stark divergence in choices between the two countries was caused not by
internal interests or institutions, but by their stark divergence in national political ideologies,
which was in turn caused by their stark divergence in national political development. Britain
incorporated polite political contestation within the aristocrat class long before it included the
majority of its people in the policy-making process. In contrast, France attempted to
simultaneously achieve both contestation and participation several times after its 1789 revolution.
These contrasting legacies left contrasting ideas of the role that government should play in the
national economy. British voters tend to only favor government involvement that proves
economically beneficial, while French voters tend to favor heavy government involvement at all
times with specific policies implemented by a powerful president.
Britain’s path from monarchy to democracy was extraordinarily stable when compared to
most countries. Beginning with a “closed hegemony”, it gradually liberalized by allowing more
political contestation to become a “competitive oligarchy”; then gradually increased inclusion by
bringing more actors into the system to become a “polyarchy” (Dahl 34). The early decision-
making process among the British elite led to the development of three political norms: “agree to
disagree, accept the risk of losing, and accept occasional losses” (Alexander 1/28). When
universal suffrage was granted gradually over the course of the century following the outbreak of
the Industrial Revolution, each newly enfranchised group was not only incorporated into the
voting institution itself but also the norms of polite contestation that came with it. This is

2. essential because it meant that all British citizens were amenable to the implementation of
policies that they did not agree with, as well as being open to new agendas when old ones
became obsolete.
This is exactly what happened in 1979. Though Keynesian demand management and
industry nationalization (along with public welfare) were the embodiment of the post-war
consensus, the economic difficulties that peaked during the Winter of Discontent caused voters
to search for new options. Keynesianism alleviated unemployment at the expense of increasing
inflation (Hall 391). James Callaghan’s Labour government became bogged down in disputes
over wages and benefits with the unions of nationalized industries such as “coal, railways, and
power…[which] were in a very strong bargaining position” (Kavanagh 219). The government did
not have the liberty of free market competition that private companies did, and was forced to
respond to political pressures rather than economic ones, which ultimately resulted in
inefficiencies and union strikes. This caused British voters to place their confidence in Margaret
Thatcher, who swiftly implemented an economic U-turn.
Over the next ten years, Thatcher and the Conservatives privatized the oil,
telecommunications, steel, and automobile industries (Kavanagh 222). They stressed monetarism
over Keynesianism, arguing that “by strictly controlling the money supply system they would
restore sound finance and squeeze inflation out of the system” (224). Both policies were
successful, and though there was a short-term surge in unemployment, this was both expected
and accepted by British voters. Thatcher’s ideology remained successful in Britain over the
following decades; in 2010 “the debate…[was] more on how fast to cut government spending
rather than whether such reductions are the right thing to do” (Thomas). Privatization and
monetarism brought Britain out of its recession, and as long as they continue to hold up they will

3. receive the support of the populace. In accordance with this ideology, though Thatcher wanted to
reduce the welfare state, it remained too popular among voters and she was forced to abandon
this attempted reform.
The French Socialist response to the same economic crisis that brought Thatcherism to
Britain is inexorably linked to the aftermath of the revolution which deposed King Louis XVI.
Between 1789 and 1792, the French attempted a rapid development from closed hegemony to
polyarchy, an overambitious (though well-intentioned) move that was doomed to failure (Dahl
35). The political process became open to a large portion of the population before “the arts of
competitive politics [had] been mastered and accepted as legitimate” (38). The British norm of
polite contestation developed by their aristocrats was unknown in France; therefore simultaneous
contestation and inclusion created chaos rather than stability. This chaos brought crippling
fragmentation into French politics for the next century and a half.
Both the first and second French republics lasted less than ten years before devolving into
empires. The third allowed itself to be taken over by the Nazis; the fourth could not maintain a
majority coalition in Parliament because the numerous parties that were represented refused to
compromise on agendas, such as the decolonization process (Cirtautas 85). The resulting
political paralyzation deeply troubled Charles De Gaulle, who had been traumatized by the
subjugation of his homeland for five years and who worked tirelessly to restore it. He knew from
experience that fragmentation led to weakness, and that France could not afford to be weak in the
face of powerful neighbors. This brought him to the conclusion that the only way to “avoid
embroiling in party battles” was the establishment of a “Chief of State, placed above the parties”;
a president1
(De Gaulle). The fifth republic was thus stabilized by the institution of the powerful
presidential office, and with it the idea that it was no longer acceptable to question the

4. government. The history of fragmentation also led to the creation of the two-round electoral
system, which dictates that the president-elect receives a popular majority of the votes. In other
words, anti-fragmentation ideology has created institutions that enforce cohesiveness.
This has also caused the idea of dirigisme, a desire among the French for high
government involvement in the economy (Clift 153). In addition to large-scale nationalization,
France was the only Western European state to implement microeconomic intervention, or “soft
planning” after the end of World War Two through subsidies and tax incentives to encourage the
development of infant industries (Alexander 3/2). This idea also caused the French to opt for a
Socialist solution in 1981 rather than a Thatcherite one.
Though Keynesianism and “soft planning” created incredible growth in the quarter
century after World War Two, they were no longer effective by the end of the 1970s. Yet France
still elected François Mitterrand. The failure of previous policy failures led him to implement an
“‘ordo-liberal,’ anti-inflationary and market-conforming solution” (Clift 161), following the
German model of tackling inflation at the expense of unemployment. This neo-liberal approach,
though a significant departure from Keynesianism, is characterized by the remaining presence of
the French government in the French economy. It seems that the French people would not have it
any other way.
This paper has described the effect of the chronological order of political contestation and
inclusion on the current British and French ideology concerning the role of government in the
economy. The British only favor government involvement that proves effective because they
developed contestation before inclusion; the French favor heavy government involvement at all
times through the actions of a powerful president because they tried to develop both
simultaneously.

5. WORKS CITED
Alexander, Gerard. “Britain 1: Did Culture Make Britain Democratic (by Making Britons Into
Democrats)?” Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics, University of Virginia. Gilmer
Hall, Charlottesville, VA. 28 Jan. 2015. Lecture.
Alexander, Gerard. “France 4: How Did Industrial Policy Fit Into France’s Economic Policies?”
Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics, University of Virginia. Gilmer Hall,
Charlottesville, VA. 2 March 2015. Lecture.
Cirtautas, Arista. “France.” Comparative Politics: Interests, Identities, and Institutions in a
Changing Global Order. Ed. Jeffrey Kopstein and Mark Lichbach. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 200. Print.
Clift, Ben. “Economic Interventionism in the Fifth Republic.” The French Fifth Republic at
Fifty. PLCP 3110 Spring 2015 Course Packet (Alexander). Print.
Dahl, Robert. Polyarchy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1972. Print
De Gaulle, Charles. “The Need for a Strong State.” 16 June 1946 speech transcript. PLCP 3110
Spring 2015 Course Packet (Alexander). Print.
Hall, Peter. “The Politics of Keynesian Ideas.” PLCP 3110 Spring 2015 Course Packet
(Alexander). Print.
Kavanagh, Dennis. Thatcherism and British Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Print.
Thomas, Landon. “Europe Seen Avoiding Keynes’s Cure for Recession.” The New York Times.
20 October 2010. Print.