Abstract
‘The work was standardized, rigid; it has become adaptable, flexible. The institutions were paternalist, authoritarian; they have become permissive, liberal. A feeling of security reigned on the world. It is now the insecurity which is dominant' (Cohen, 2002)
This international economic change has disrupted the French Social model but has it signaled its irremediable end? It is the serious concern that we will try to clarify and to develop. The first significant point is the definition of the singular economic French model.
In the beginning of the second part of the twentieth century, the French state played a significant role in the domestic economy through the duty of reconstruction and modernization which imposed to France. As an investor, a manager, an undertaken the state fostered up the economic growth. The French model took its grassroots on the ideal of the Social Democracy, providing France with far-spreading social security system.
Does this strong state presence enable France to promote the implementation of a favorable environment for an opened economy or in contrast does it establish barriers and restrictions against the growing international competition? Until the seventies, the French Model seemed to succeed, combining a high growth rate and human progresses. The state achieved to benefit from the first steps of its adhesion to the free trade.
