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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the actors, institutions and changing rules of the French system of industrial relations (IR). It questions whether the traditional view of the French model as “state-centric” is still adequate.Design/methodology/approach Based on institutionalist IR theories of social regulation and neocorporatism, the paper analyses the evolution of the French IR system from a “State-centric” model to the development of collective bargaining, both at the sector and company level, as well as of tripartite concertation.Findings Initially based on adversarial relations between trade unions and employers, compensated by strong state interventionism, the French IR system has experienced a series of reforms, adopted under the pressure of the unions in the 1980s and mostly under the pressure of the employers’ organisations since the turn of the century. These reforms boosted collective bargaining at the workplace level and tripartite concertation at the peak level. The paper analyses the limits of both developments and explains why a reversal of the hierarchy of norms was imposed in 2016 by law without prior concertation.Originality/value The paper presents an original explanation of the change of the initial French IR model, stressing the importance of power relations and the role of IR experts in the different reform moments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how media system differences in the form of news change or stay the same as newspapers in the United States (liberal), Denmark (democratic corporatist), and France (polarized pluralist) move from print to online. Internet technological affordances are posited to move online news toward more advertising and information (liberal model) and more opinion and deliberation (polarized pluralist model). In the liberal direction, advertising and more localized, light news increase; toward polarized pluralism, news as a whole declines while deliberation, opinion, and nonjournalistic voices increase slightly. A lesser degree of change in France may be due to greater state insulation from market pressures; some contradictory tendencies in Denmark indicate that technological influences are shaped by contextual national factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pessimistic predictions notwithstanding, concertation has re-emerged in Western Europe since the 1990s. However, the renaissance of social pacts seems independent of past national legacies of neo-corporatism. Discussing and improving upon insights from the expanding literature on comparative political economy, it is argued that Compston's configurational theory can still be helpfully applied to study the successful formation of social pacts. Empirically, the article draws on evidence from Austria, France, Germany, and Ireland. While concertation has successfully emerged in Ireland, attempts to construct or revive it in France and Germany have been frustrated, since only some of the necessary conditions have been met. In Austria, concertation underwent a crisis in the 2000s, only to re-emerge at the end of the decade. Given the fragility of this unique mix, social pacts may falter over time and cannot be created by decree. The article contributes to a better understanding of the preconditions required for concertation by examining the continued validity of Compston's framework and presenting fresh empirical evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Youth" was once defined as the 15 to 24 year old age group. Today in France one sees a "first youth" (dependent on family and school) and a "second youth" in their twenties sharply divided between a successful elite with top degrees (or family wealth) and a highly marginalized workingclass. Between these extremes, a middle group often experiences frustration and anomie when their university degrees fail to launch the careers they desired. A "third youth" of thirty-somethings has also emerged still dependent on their families and the state. The French corporatist welfare regime, moreover, makes women, immigrants, and the young structural outsiders who must compete harder than Caucasian middle-aged men for jobs. Setbacks early in life in the labor market have long-term consequences (scarring effects) both for individuals and for the birth cohort as a whole. The political consequences are difficult to forecast, but much of the recent political volatility in France can be traced to these generational dynamics and failure to integrate youth since the late 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article profiles Pierre Laroque, the architect of French social security, who is an advocate for the corporatist management of the industrial relations. He is a member of the Conseil d'État under the influence of the main doctrines of French public law. He was assigned to the Conseil National Économique and became interested in industrial conflict and applied collective bargaining.

Since the French Revolution, theorists from across the entire ideological spectrum have looked to some version of corporatism as a means of reconstituting the French political system and redefining the relationship between state, individual, and civil society. During the inter-war period these efforts were renewed as intellectuals struggled with the problems posed by economic and political crises and social division. This produced a rich vein of political speculation which has been inadequately dealt with in the scholarly literature. This article examines a series of attempts to reconstitute French society and polity on a corporatist basis from a range of ideological perspectives. The argument is that, irrespective of their ideological provenance, these efforts shared a common focus on the twin themes of community and organization in their attempts to reconceptualize the foundations of political society and citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides information on the influence of neo-corporatism on the environmental policy in France. Discussion on the French context of neo-corporatism; Information on the policies for several environmental issues; Effect of the changes and innovations in policy effectiveness.

Discusses corporatism in France in the early 1900s. Implications of the problems in the silk industry in Lyon; Crisis of the Lyonnais liberal tradition; Economic and ideological contradictions in French society; Difficulty of categorizing corporatism.

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The case of the French textile and clothing industry during the post-1974 crisis period illustrates a number of issues relevant to the debate about meso-corporatism and interest inter- mediation at the sectoral level in industry. It highlights the importance of attempts to understand the relationships between organised interests and the state in the analysis of the policy process. The pattern of state-industry relations which evolved was crucial in determining the outcome of conflict between state and industry over the management of restructuring during the crisis. The inapplicability of the meso-corporatist model to this case becomes clear. There was a conspicuous absence of either political exchange or a shared policy agenda, each an important element of corporatist patterns of policy formation, in both the formation and implementation of adjustment policies in the sector. Mutual suspicion and a struggle to control the terms of the debate yielded a low level of co-operation. Eventually the industry was able to appropriate increased public funds on its own terms and to insist on a protective trade regime. The complexity of the case points to the need to broaden the debate over models of interest intermediation and to relate it to issues in political economy. This is particularly important with regard to the structure of the bureaucratic state and notions of state autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the corporatist philosophy of Emile Durkheim, one of the most renowned modern advocate of corporatism. According to political scientist Robert Nisbet, Durkheim sought to restore moral authority in France and bring to state the stability which had proven so elusive throughout the nineteenth century. Another critic, Anthony Giddens, asserts the Durkheim did not to want to recapture a bygone era but rather sought to enable France to adapt to the dislocations generated by the rapid growth of a market economy without suppressing the ideals of liberal individualism.

Copyright of International Political Science Review is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the social policies of Germany and France specifically with respect to their Catholic social roots and with respect to women in the labor market. Catholic social policy is said to be anti-liberal, anti-socialist, corporatistic, and anti-statist. Solidarity as a group rather than individualism is said to be a key principle in both national societies, whose female and family social policies are said to be largely convergent.