The Political Foundations of Trust and Distrust: Reforms and Protests in France
Lindvall, Johannes LU
(2011)
In West European Politics
34(2).
p.296-316
- Abstract
- This article argues that the high level of protest activity in France is, at least partly, the result of distrust between the government and the trade unions, and that such distrust is inevitable in a society where unions are sometimes strong enough to mobilise against the government but not confident in their own future strength. This trust problem can be overcome if governments are willing to make institutional changes that commit them to future policies, but such political engineering is costly and unstable, which explains why governments sometimes prefer open confrontation. The empirical part of the paper analyses four French social and labour market reform initiatives in the 1990s and 2000s, demonstrating that the ideas developed in... (More)
- This article argues that the high level of protest activity in France is, at least partly, the result of distrust between the government and the trade unions, and that such distrust is inevitable in a society where unions are sometimes strong enough to mobilise against the government but not confident in their own future strength. This trust problem can be overcome if governments are willing to make institutional changes that commit them to future policies, but such political engineering is costly and unstable, which explains why governments sometimes prefer open confrontation. The empirical part of the paper analyses four French social and labour market reform initiatives in the 1990s and 2000s, demonstrating that the ideas developed in this article help to explain important features of contemporary French policy-making. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1918218
- author
- Lindvall, Johannes
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2011
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- West European Politics
- volume
- 34
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 296 - 316
- publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000288281400006
- scopus:79952376320
- ISSN
- 0140-2382
- DOI
- 10.1080/01402382.2011.546575
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- d5efd880-a593-49a4-9b67-c3735a7057eb (old id 1918218)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 15:04:01
- date last changed
- 2022-02-05 00:11:20
@article{d5efd880-a593-49a4-9b67-c3735a7057eb,
abstract = {{This article argues that the high level of protest activity in France is, at least partly, the result of distrust between the government and the trade unions, and that such distrust is inevitable in a society where unions are sometimes strong enough to mobilise against the government but not confident in their own future strength. This trust problem can be overcome if governments are willing to make institutional changes that commit them to future policies, but such political engineering is costly and unstable, which explains why governments sometimes prefer open confrontation. The empirical part of the paper analyses four French social and labour market reform initiatives in the 1990s and 2000s, demonstrating that the ideas developed in this article help to explain important features of contemporary French policy-making.}},
author = {{Lindvall, Johannes}},
issn = {{0140-2382}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{296--316}},
publisher = {{Taylor & Francis}},
series = {{West European Politics}},
title = {{The Political Foundations of Trust and Distrust: Reforms and Protests in France}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2011.546575}},
doi = {{10.1080/01402382.2011.546575}},
volume = {{34}},
year = {{2011}},
}