October 24, 2024 - 1:00pm
A major new poll of French citizens has revealed worryingly high levels of dissatisfaction with democracy.
Commissioned by the CESE (a super-quango of experts), the Ipsos research found that 23% of respondents disagree with the statement that democracy is the best political system. That’s a minority, of course, but a substantial one. What’s more, the corresponding figure among under-35s is 32%.
French newspapers have also seized upon the finding that 51% of respondents believe that only un pouvoir fort et centralisé (a strong, centralised power) can maintain order and security. Exactly what they might mean by that requires further study. Is it an observation — and endorsement — of the status quo? Or is it a yearning for a truly authoritarian state?
According to Reuters, most voters don’t believe that the democratic system of the Fifth Republic (i.e. the current French constitution) works. They’re right. The constitution was designed for a relatively simple party system divided between centre-right and centre-left blocs. It was never meant to accommodate a messy three-way split between the radical Left, the liberal establishment and the populist Right.
This year’s political chaos is a case in point. It saw the Left and centre gang up on the Right, only for Marine Le Pen to then impose a conservative prime minister on Emmanuel Macron. For elections to have credibility there needs to be a discernible relationship between votes and outcomes. But in the flaky Fifth Republic, casting a ballot is more like pulling the lever on a fruit machine.
A distinction must be made between the failings of a particular system and democracy in principle. Reassuringly, Ipsos found that 60% of the French public is ready to defend democracy if it comes under threat (another 24% made a somewhat weaker commitment). Nevertheless, it’s clear from the overall polling results — not to mention actual election results — that the French are unhappy with the status quo.
A British cynic might answer that the French are never happy. But the rise of populist parties on both the Right and Left would suggest they’ve become progressively unhappier over the last 20 years — and to an extent that exceeds equivalent trends in most other European countries.
One can point the finger at mass immigration, but that’s not an exclusively French phenomenon. Rather, what makes France special is the unsustainable generosity of the state. Government spending accounts for 58% of GDP — more than any other EU country including Denmark and Sweden. At the same time, French finances are coming under unprecedented pressure. Despite levying the highest taxes in Europe, the state is running a 6% deficit. In recent weeks we’ve seen the markets price French government debt above Spanish or even Greek levels.
That this can’t go on is obvious to everyone except the French public. Emmanuel Macron has tried to grasp the nettle — for instance with his pension reforms — but he’s been brutally punished by the voters for doing so.
Ultimately, the real problem here is not with democracy or even the French version of democracy. Rather, it’s the French tendency to demand the impossible.
Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.
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SubscribeGood article. Thanks! I like the article’s final flourish, harking back to 1968: “Soyez réalistes, demandez l’impossible”. About the only thing that the Rassemblement National and the Nouveau Front Populaire have in common is a reluctance to accept the need for drastic spending cuts. Apart from that, I wouldn’t say that the RN is demanding the impossible. It is just that its demands are incompatible with the NFP’s demands (which are impossible).
I’m pretty sure those who polled negatively weren’t necessarily in favour of a more authoritarian system, just that the way democracies across the West not only no longer represent the majority views of their electorates on a number of vital issues, but the leadership being thrown up is seen as weak and unable to stem the tide of competition from regimes that don’t have to take any notice whatsoever of what their populations think.
Is this an inherent weakness of democracy? The past century or so, until around the crash of 2008, would suggest otherwise.
Turning a floundering ship around in a storm isn’t impossible, but requires great leadership. Your guess is as good as mine how that might arise.
Who needs democracy when we have NGOs.
A lot of young people are under the misguided notion that democracy means “my side always wins.” In the US, this same cohort talks fondly of socialism as if there is no such thing as history. Either way, this seems like the residue of having had the luxury of taking freedom and material comforts for granted.
Well Macron has pissed down on the voters for years now, so there might be a reason for a wee bit of disappointment in what is a “DINO” “Democracy In Name Only”….
Nor is dissatisfaction and a surge in ‘populism’ exclusively a French phenomenon.
It’s hard to know what these polls actually mean out of context. What is meant by “democracy”? Do they think that the system they have now is a democracy? Or is it precisely that they feel the current system isn’t working, no matter what they vote?
The panic about (France’s) public spending becomes a bit repetitive. For what it’s worth, both the US and Japan have higher national debts relative to GDP. What does this really mean? I think when it comes to the economy and austerity doctrines a lot of people feel – at least on some level – that something very fishy is going on. Especially after 2008 when public spending all of a sudden seemed limitless when big capital needed it. Perhaps it is precisely because Western democracies increasingly have these oligarchic tendencies that people feel the system isn’t working for them.
The regime mouthpieces will do anything to avoid addressing the large and compounding issue of population replacement mass migration (a.k.a. an ‘elite” organized and funded invasion).
Presumably the 1/3 of French voters who are Maoist.
What a dismissive and disrespectful article this is ! How dare the author just « shove » all French in the same bucket of « unrealistic demands »…
The French, much line all other people just want to live decently with the money they make and given the amount of taxes they pay! The problem is the cancer like growth of the state apparatus to the detriment of private companies. All of this because of the successive socialist or socialist- like governemnts and politicians who have not respected the wishes and the votes of the French people .
The reason most young people do not trust French democracy anymore is because despite the fact that the Front National actually got more than 40% of the expressed votes, they are not represented AT ALL in the government and under-represented in the parliament!
The French elites, dismissive of democratic votes, have used the false strategy of « barrage republicain » to undermine the will of the people by calling a democratically elected party as unfit to rule because « anti-republican ».
And this is how, again, the vote of the people has been « stolen » much line in 2006/ 2008 with the Lisbon treaty.
Alea Iacta est
The budget debate is interesting because those on the ‘populist’ right and left are for the first time working together against the ‘responsible centre’ (the rentier interest).
Lets cut to the chase: the Islamic factor is what is now the main concern of the peoples of both France and Italy, which I visit every month, not least because of the left using support of it as a weapon against what they call ” the far right”- I have witnessed an exponential rise in concern amongst the people of the drug and associated violence problems that have resulted due to immigration from, especially, North Africa.
“Ultimately, the real problem here is not with democracy or even the French version of democracy. Rather, it’s the French tendency to demand the impossible.”
I’m not sure this is exclusively a French tendency. People in all democracies will vote for whoever promises them the most free stuff, which has to be paid for by stealing from someone else (aka taxes) or loading the cost on future generations (aka borrowing). This is why Churchill called democracy “the worst form of government, apart from all the others”.
For democracy to work it has to be based on a well-informed electorate having access to all relevant information, and making a choice in the full understanding of the consequences of their decision. I’d argue that neither requirement exists in most democracies, hence Churchill’s other famous aphorism ” the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter”.