Decline of France?

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses that, in the areas of the arts and politics, France surely was an able leader; but today, unemployment is at 10 percent and rising, the national debt has doubled in eight years, and the country has fallen to tenth position in the European Union for income per capita. The author points out three main arguments on the causes of the decline of France: the chaotic history up to the end of decolonization; the domestic confusion caused by lost opportunities and mistaken choices since 1970; and the months after French President Jacques Chirac's re-election in May 2002 with 82 per cent of the vote, followed by some of the worst economic statistics since the war. The paper concludes that France, like every other country, has its good and bad points, successes and failures; other Western nations, including Britain and the United States, need to do some internal cleaning as well.

From the Paper:

"Further, in a Time magazine article "From Decline to Renewal" Stanley Hoffman quotes what he considers a still-relevant quote by President Charles De Gaulle. He invoked "old France, overburdened by history, bruised by wars and revolutions, moving endlessly from grandeur to decline and back, but regenerated, century after century, by the genius for renewal." The article then notes that France, which was so devastated by World War II occupation, has to be commended on its reconstruction, industrial revolution along with the modernization of the country's agriculture."

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