Does France have a strong socialist orientation?

[BayCityProgressive]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Party_(France)

I didn't know the extent of France's socialism until reading this article and others. In the 80's and early 90's under the Socialist and Communist parties, France nationalized telecommunications, railways, banks, and healthcare. The capitalists then took all of their money out of France and caused the economy to collapse. So my question is would you consider France on a socialist path and did the 80's prove that with how globalized the economy has become it is impossible to create socialism in one country?

[arcos]

1. France is a capitalist country...

Capitalism was never in any "danger"... it just has a strong socialist influence like many other countries around the world. Capitalism, with a few socialist institutions.

[savemefromdumbya]

2. never thought France as being left wing

more the opposite

[tocqueville]

3. France has never been a "socialist" country and will never be

1) France hasn't nationalized what you name in the 80s-90s, specially not banks :rofl:

2) those services called public services (communications, post offices, telecommunications, a part of healthcare, energy etc...) have ALWAYS been in state control (except banks with the exception of the national treasury) since the beginning of the 1900-

3) France hasn't been very different from OTHER European countries, maybe with the exception of post Thatcher UK

4) A trend towards privatisation in Europe has transferred the major part of those services towards the private sector
or with a lesser part of the State as shareholder. In most countries in Europe healthcare and railways are still belonging to the state, specially after the catastrophic experiences in the UK

5) Socialism in one country is an old dispute between trotskyites and stalinists.... today it's pure speculation

6) by definition all western European countries and nowadays the eastern ones are capitalistic. The Western ones have ALWAYS been capitalistic since the PRODUCTION MEANS have always been in PRIVATE HANDS.

7) The fact that some vital sectors (energy, communications, healthcare) are managed by the STATE to ensure equal distribution to all and thus buffer the market's necessities, has NOTHING TO DO with socialism. It's a political management form which today tends to be more delegated to private companies BUT UNDER STRICT STATE CONTROLL to avoid that non profitable sectors are laid off. Taxpayer money can be used for that, but normally it plays a minor role. The most expensive is the coverage by the State of medical expenses.

That Europe and France are socialistic is a freeper fantasy

[YapiYapo]

12. A few points...

1)Remember Credit lyonais + Bernard Tapie ? ;)
2)True ,I would like to add France get the cheapest broadband internet in the whole EU
3)It's indeed very close form of governement to their neighboor country, germany,italy,spain,belgium,...
4)France energy companie (EDF) is actually buying other non french energy company.They just bought the belgian energy company called Electrabel a few month ago.This will allow them to build nuclear reactor in belgium and export the electricity to france.
5)/
6)Some are run by socialist yet they still have to apply a capitalist politic if they want to stay competitive.
7)Medical expenses in france are the biggest in the world, it's less worse in other EU country.

[AllieB]

4. France is a social democracy like most European countries

The economic system is capitalism.

[tocqueville]

5. Actually except some Nordic countries... and Spain

most of the European counties are today to the center-right. Of course the Social-Democratic parties are strong, but mainly in opposition.

The US left-right scale isn't really transferable to Europe. Depending on some crucial questions of the relation state-capital, if Europe had a US Democrat-Liberal governance it would imply a giant leap to the right and probably a lot of social unrest.

On the contrary if a moderate Social-Democratic Government was formed in the US and really started to legislate like an European one, it would probably mean for most Republicans a "communist coup", and probably it would result in a new civil war.

The differences are that big...

[arcos]

6. I believe s/he was talking about the system overall, not the current gov..

That is, even though a right wing party may be in government, social democratic institutions still remain in place.

[tocqueville]

7. they are not defined as "social democratic" here...

the system is called "public service".

Those institutions can be created by right-wing politicians as well. Most of France's social institutions were created by De Gaulle who hated socialism and communism.

You don't have to be a "socialist" to pass reforms to the benefit of the masses. FDR was hardly a "socialist", unless in freepers twisted fantasy

[arcos]

8. You can describe them that way...

Even though they are not strictly defined that way...

Same thing happens in my country, Costa Rica. We are a social democracy because we have socialized healthcare, government monopolies on electricity, telecommunications and refining, etc, even though we haven't had a left of center government in nearly 20 years.

Of course FDR was not a socialist... as you said in your previous post, the US political spectrum is way to the right of most of the western world. My country IS pretty much socialistic by US standards.

[tocqueville]

9. Costa Rica is a nice country

even abolished the military, nobel prize as president...

watch out for the hurricanes... take care

[arcos]

10. Thanks!

Sadly our Nobel Peace Prize winner is running for President again and he's expected to win... yet another right wing administration!


:hi:

[misanthrope]

11. Depends on whom you talk to...

...and probably not as much as the average American would like believe.

Americans like to believe they're the epitome of rugged individualists but the fact is that limited socialism has gotten them where they are.