At first glance, the phrase “a conservative revolution” may sound like an oxymoron. And, yet, this is precisely how France’s new President Nicolas Sarkozy describes his massive reform program.
The term revolution has a special place in French collective conscience and is used frequently to describe any collective activity designed to alter the status quo in any domain. A new style of writing is labeled “a revolution” as is a new way of preparing one of the nation’s many favorite dishes. Needless to say any political activity that falls outside normal rules of conduct is also regarded as revolutionary.
So attached are the French to the idea of revolution that they have named a good number of the streets in their cities after revolutionary figures.
To the French the idea of revolution is closely linked with that of equality and justice. A revolution is always aimed at weakening the powerful, taking away from the rich, and humbling the haughty.
However, what Sarkozy is trying to do is to redefine the term revolution.
His first target is the French obsession with equality that, in practice, means a desire to slow down those who can run faster rather than help the slow to achieve greater speed. Sarkozy, however, is putting the emphasis on individual merit rather than collective rights.
To be sure, he asserts, human beings are born equal and must be treated as equals under the law. But this does not mean that they should or could be equal in all other aspects of their existence. Those who have been successful in the field of their choice need not be apologetic. In fact, Sarkozy rejects one of the most celebrated sayings of Descartes, France’s favorite philosopher, who advised that the only way to live happily is to live “hidden”.
In the Sarkozy revolution, it is possible to live happily and advertise one’s success. There is no guilt in making money and being rich as long as the wealth acquired is the fruit of imagination, innovation and hard work.
Sarkozy’s second target is the French assumption that society owes all its members a set of protections and privileges regardless of the individual citizen’s contribution to the common weal. To many French, the phrase “acquired rights” is a magic formula with a degree of secular sanctity. In Sarkozy’s world vision, however, nothing is forever. The citizen is guaranteed a number of key services such as security, the rule of law and basic education and health services. Beyond that, however, he cannot expect to get more out of society than he puts into it.
On closer examination, a paradox lies in the heart of the Sarkozy revolution. He says he wants to set the individual citizen free so that he can realize his full potential thanks to merit and hard work. He would not allow the slow to break the pace of the fast and the weak to prevent the strong from using their strength to the full in the service of society as a whole. The model he has in mind is that of the “frontier spirit” often associated with the United States in its initial formative decades.
To be sure, much of what is associated with the so-called American model and “frontier spirit” is in the realm of myth. But there is no denying that the “American model” emphasizes the role of the individual as opposed to the collective. To most Americans, such concepts as free enterprise and individual initiative come naturally. The average American cannot conceive of any other model of economic activity than that of the free market. In that context the role assigned to the state, though important, is always regarded as secondary.
In the Sarkozy system, however, the state, now identified with the person of the president, assumes a leadership role that most Americans would find bizarre. Sarkozy wants to use the power of the state to bring about an anti-state revolution. What is already being labeled “Sarkozysm” may or may not fly. The whole enterprise could break apart when it hits a wave of public sector strikes later this year. The power of the French inertia, the fear of change that pervades large segments of French society, and the intransigence of vested interests may yet kill Sarkozy’s “conservative revolution” before it takes shape.
However, if it survives the coming clash, the Sarkozy revolution could give France its first genuine conservative movement since the Great Revolution of the 18th century. For the past two centuries, French conservatism has been dominated by two brands of the political right.
The first is known under the label of “Bonapartisme” named after Napoleon Bonaparte, the revolutionary general who staged a coup d’etat and declared himself emperor. The Bonapartiste right envisions a state that stands above social and economic classes and rules the nation in a spirit of paternalism. The state is the father, the citizens its children. In exchange for their obedience, the children can expect the father to provide them with a decent life and a bit of glory thrown in for good measure. It was thanks to this Bonapartiste tradition that the French right had no difficulty in adopting the Socialist model of the welfare state as early as the late 1940s.
The second brand of the political right in France is known as “Orleanism”, named after Louis Philippe, the duke of Orleans who, became king in 1830. The core of the Orealnist philosophy is expressed in the famous formula of Guizot, Louis Philippe’s chief minister in charge of the economy: “Gentlemen! Get Rich!”
Unlike the Bonapartiste right that envisaged a central role for the state, the Orleanist right seeks to minimize state intervention as much as possible. The Orleanist state is not a pater familias with the right to dictate moral and cultural norms.
All it does is to ensure law and order and enable the enterprising citizens to make as much money as they can in a free market economy.
Not surprisingly, the Orleanist right was never able to win full power in France. A majority of the French who voted for the right always preferred Bonapartiste parties if only because their narrative had a revolutionary tone about it. Sarkozy’s originality lies in the fact that he is a Bonapartiste at heart with an Orleanist program. Will Sarkozy be able to build a new right in France just as Tony Blair built a new left in Britain? It is too early to tell.
