La crise de L'Etat-providence

by Pierre Rosanvallon

Essais

Pendant presque un siècle, la construction de l'Etat-providence a constitué l'horizon naturel du progrès social dans les pays industriels. Cet Etat-providence est aujourd'hui mal en point. Il est d'abord devenu trop coûteux. Si elles continuaient à croître au rythme actuel, les dépenses de santé absorberaient dans trente ans la quasi-totalité des ressources des ménages ! Pour faire face à la hausse des dépenses sociales, les prélèvements obligatoires ont crû très rapidement, menaçant du même coup la compétitivité des entreprises et le dynamisme de l'économie. Mais l'Etat-providence est surtout devenu une machinerie de plus en plus opaque et bureaucratique. Les principes de solidarité et de redistribution qui le commandent, n'apparaissent plus clairement. La crise de l'Etat-providence est culturelle et morale plus encore qu'économique.

183 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Pierre Rosanvallon (b. 1948, Blois) is a French intellectual and historian, named professor at the Collège de France in 2001. He holds there the chair in the modern and contemporary history of the political. His works are dedicated to the history of democracy, French political history, the role of the state and the question of social justice in contemporary societies. He is also director of studies at the EHESS, where he leads the Raymond Aron Centre of Political Researches. Rosanvallon was in the 1970s one of the primary theoreticians of workers' self-management in the CFDT trade union.

He is diplomed from the HEC management school. In 1982, he created the Fondation Saint-Simon think-tank, along with François Furet. The Fondation dissolved in December 1999. Since 2002, Rosanvallon is member of the Scientific Counsel of the French National Library, and has the same functions, since 2004, at the École Normale Supérieure of Paris.

Rosanvallon created in 2002 La République des Idées, an "intellectual workshop" which he presides. The group publishes a review and books.

Reviews

[Killian Henri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Permet vraiment de comprendre les crises que traverse actuellement le système français et ce même si le livre commence à dater. Quelques propositions de solutions. Je conseille vraiment si vous êtes passionné de sciences sociales

[Mathis Clément-Larosière · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Aykabo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read the Turkish translation by Burcu Şahinli, which was published as a part of the "yasa siyasa" series organized by Cemal Bâli Akal for Dost Kitabevi Publishing in 2004.

However Rodanvallon had published the book in 1981, one year after the coup d'état in Turkey, which marks the transition to the neoliberal system.

Historical references at the end of the book covering the roots of the term "welfare state" and the formation of it in England, Germany and France is a good and clear summary. Also conceptual discussions including the Marxist and neoliberal analysis are summarized in a compact way.

Rosanvallon analize the concept of state and tries to find out a way which minimizes it without becoming a company which renders the citizens into atomic consumers and competitors. He does not agree with the Marxist view according to which the welfare state is a support system for a capitalist society in crisis. He also condems social democrats for their statist inclinations. He supports Nozick and tries to figure out a society of solidarity without a state.