Abstract
Machu and Tracol compare the way in which the French Socialists carried out social reforms when they came to power in 1936 and in 1981. Their chapter focuses on the historical transformations in the relationship between senior civil servants and the Socialist Party. In the 1930s, socialist programmes were formed primarily within the party, which did not take part on the debate on collective agreements that agitated reformist circles at the time. On the contrary, in the 1970s, the Parti Socialiste (PS) elaborated its reforms according to the data provided by the state economic expertise. Both periods, however, were characterized by a concern for efficiency that led to giving the executive power the dominant role. The party itself and the socialist deputies remained marginalized.
Translated by Cynthia Schoch and Trista Selous.
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Notes
- 1.
As an example in relation to the 1980s, Yvon Gattaz and Philippe Simonnot, Mitterrand et les patrons, 1981–1986, Paris, Fayard, 1999, 325 p.
- 2.
Amongst executive civil servant, senior civil servants characterize themselves by their significant responsibilities but also the prestige of the public service body they belong to. This category includes, for instance, finance inspectors but also members of the highest administrative court (Conseil d’État) and of the Court of Auditors, and after 1945 the National School of Administration (ENA) graduates.
- 3.
Fondation Jean-Jaurès, Centre d’Archives socialistes (later FJJ-CAS), note from Michel Rocard to Pierre Mauroy, 27 August 1981.
- 4.
These were the economists Etienne Antonelli and Lucien Laurat as well as Ludovic Zoretti (professor of science) and Louis Vallon (graduate of the École Polytechnique).
- 5.
The historian Olivier Dard notes that “technocrats are thus mainly men who have spent time in the private sector”.
- 6.
The institution founded in 1925 can be seen as the ancestor of both the Conseil économique et social and the Commissariat général du Plan.
- 7.
A single bill submitted by Raoul Evrard in 1934 (Journal officiel, Chambre des Députés, documents parlementaires, Proposition de résolution no. 3408, pp. 736–737).
- 8.
At the conference of 1934 Jean Lebas called for a “working week of forty hours with a minimum wage” or a “fixed minimum wage”, without specifying the methods by which minimum salaries would be fixed (SFIO, XXXIe congrès national tenu à Toulouse, 20-23 mai 1934: compte-rendu sténographique, Paris, Librairie Populaire, 1935, pp. 334–335).
- 9.
SFIO, 30th National Congress, 14–17 July 1933, reports, Librairie du Parti, 1933, 199 p.
- 10.
On Jean Lebas, see infra.
- 11.
AN 19760121/380, Note on the bill of MM. Evrard, Louis Gros and a number of their colleagues relating to the 40-hour week (no date or author).
- 12.
It was mainly Jules Moch, Robert Marjolin and Etienne Weill-Raynal.
- 13.
In fact, in its legal aspects the bill submitted by Antonelli is a direct copy of the law on the eight-hour work day.
- 14.
Alain Chatriot, “Débats internationaux, rupture politique et négociations sociales: le bond en avant des 40 heures 1932–1938”, art. cit.
- 15.
AN 19760121/380, Memo from the head of the office of the President of the Council to Charles Picquenard, 15 March 1935.
- 16.
A graduate of the École Polytechnique, Moch joined the SFIO in 1924. In 1928 he was elected to Parliament as the Deputy for Drôme. He was close to Léon Blum and regarded as one of the SFIO’s best experts.
- 17.
As noted by Alain Chatriot, this is recorded by the unionist René Belin, a well-informed but biased source.
- 18.
AN 19920452/18, unsigned memo from the CGP, 26 May 1975.
- 19.
Échange et Projets, La révolution du temps choisi, Paris, Albin Michel, 1980, pp. 191–192.
- 20.
Le Poing et la Rose, “Pour une politique socialiste de l’emploi”, supplement to no. 66, December 1977.
- 21.
Parti socialiste, Le programme commun de gouvernement de la gauche: propositions socialistes pour l’actualisation, Paris, Flammarion, 1978, p. 12; Projet socialiste pour la France des années 80, Paris, Club socialiste du livre, 1980, p. 175.
- 22.
Television program “Cartes sur tables”, 16 March 1981.
- 23.
Propositions 60 and 61.
- 24.
La réforme de l’entreprise : rapport du comité présidé par Pierre Sudreau, Paris, Union générale d’éditions, 1975, pp. 41 and 79. Pierre Sudreau was a senior civil servant and a centre-right politician.
- 25.
Commissariat général du Plan, Rapport du Comité emploi et travail, Paris, La Documentation française, 1976, 400 p.; Rapport de la Commission emploi et relations du travail, Paris, La Documentation française, 1980, 245 p.
- 26.
Le Monde, 17 February 1975; Le Nouvel Observateur, 17 February 1975.
- 27.
Echange et projets no. 10, 1976.
- 28.
Les lettres sur la réforme gouvernementale were first published in 1918 and republished in 1936 with the title La réforme gouvernementale.
- 29.
Hôtel Matignon is the residence and office of French Prime ministers.
- 30.
Ordonnance no. 82-41 of 16 January 1982; laws no. 82-689 of 4 August 1982; no. 82-915 of 28 October 1982; no. 82-957 of 13 November 1982; no. 82-1097 of 23 December 1982. The Auroux laws were designed to improve French industrial relations, by giving new rights to workers and by promoting collective bargaining, particularly at company level. A workers’ right to express about their working conditions was created, as well as an annual obligation to negotiate at company level.
- 31.
FJJ-CAS fonds Mauroy, CAB 18, memo by Pierre Joxe, 15 July 1982.
- 32.
Interview with Bernard Brunhes, 13 May 2008. Bernard Brunhes was social advisor to Pierre Mauroy 1981–1983. Cf. infra.
- 33.
FJJ-CAS fonds Mauroy, unindexed, memo from Robert Lion to Pierre Mauroy, 20 September 1981.
- 34.
Interview with Bernard Brunhes, 13 May 2008. This work included the conference organized by the “Work and Society” research centre at Université Paris-Dauphine in April 1979. AN 19920452/36.
- 35.
AN 19850743/435, memo from Bernard Brunhes to his collaborator René Cessieux, 15 July 1981.
- 36.
The law of 11 June 1917 on the “English Week” gave Saturday afternoons off to workers in the clothing industry.
- 37.
AN 198950743/435, minutes of the tripartite meeting in Matignon on 12 June 1981.
- 38.
Nouvelles CFDT no. 43/81, 13 November 1981.
- 39.
The number of working days lost in February 1982 rose to 450,000, as opposed to 125,000 in January. Source: Bulletin mensuel des statistiques du travail.
- 40.
AN 19820430/4, transcription of the Council of Ministers of 10 February 1982.
- 41.
Full compensation was set out in “almost all” the sector agreements. AN 5AG4/2484, memo by the Director of Employment Relations, 8 February 1983.
- 42.
Jean Auroux, Les droits des travailleurs : rapport au président de la République et au Premier ministre, Paris, La Documentation française, 1981, 104 p.
- 43.
Interview with Bernard Brunhes, 13 May 2008.
- 44.
AN 19850743/354, memo from René Cessieux to Pierre Mauroy, 5 April 1982.
- 45.
AN 19850743/354, memo from René Cessieux to Pierre Mauroy, 27 April 1982.
- 46.
This was in fact the adoption of a recommendation from the International Labour Organisation (Convention no. 155, June 1981, article 13).
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Machu, L., Tracol, M. (2020). The French Socialist Party, Civil Servants and the State. A Comparative Approach to Social Reforms Between the Popular Front Period (1936–1938) and the Early Years of the Mitterrand Presidency (1981–1983). In: Fulla, M., Lazar, M. (eds) European Socialists and the State in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41540-2_10
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