Abstract
"Something seems very wrong with this country. Once the very model of a modern major power, stable, rich and smug, it appears beset now by political and economic instability and by civil unrest and disorder. One observer has even taken to calling it "the sick man of Europe". Hardly a month passes without the appearance of a new book or learned article on the decline and imminent demise of a once proud country". This quotation, although very pessimistic, seems to say everything about the situation of France today. The country used to be associated with the idea of "grandeur", but now the words used to describe it are more often "freefall" or "decline. In 2007, in an article in The Economist, Morgan Stanley referred to France as "the new sick man of Europe". However, it must be noted that the opening quotation did not initially refer to France. The author, Isaac Kramnick, is an American political scientist and he wrote these words thinking of Britain in 1979. At that time, Britain was in a situation even worse than that of France today and had to face continuous trouble in all spheres of society.
