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Thursday, May 11, 2006The problem with French politics...Fausta has the latest on Chirac and company, specifically allegations that there's an account in Japan with $58 million that's got his name on it, and that he was directly involved in a plan to implicate political opponents in a fake scandal while covering up his own real one. Long a name in French politics, ChiChi started looking he had serious prospects after Le Canard enchaînée drove the Socialists out of power and the former Prime Minister, Pierre Bérégovoy committed suicide in 1993. From there, Chirac stuck Balladur with PM, setting himself up for the Presidency while Balladur got stuck defending how the government was actually in place. The difference between the Socialists of 1993 and the Gaullists (though philosophies have shifted, I think Chirac's main Gaullist sentiment - a desire to be as powerful as DeGaulle was at his peak remains) of 2006 is one of degree. Chirac has probably abused his power more in the pursuit of more power and filthy lucre. But both were highly corruptible and corrupted, if not inherently corrupt. (I think Béré probably started with good intentions and got swept up in his power and position; it is easier to believe of Chirac that he is essentially one very bad apple.) So, the problem with French politics... while there are different ideas about who should be ripped off and who should be paid off, all the parties have come to believe that the purpose of government is to control the economy and decide who gets what. We have our own mess with earmarks, and are getting a good reminder that the more money government controls, the more fraud, excess and economic idiocy will be perpetrated upon a society's economic engine. Now imagine the earmark mess expanded a thousandfold and taken for granted as being the right and proper way to do things. Voilà, you've got French politics. Fausta alludes to the curse of Matignon - the difficulty of ascending to the Presidency after being PM. The wonder, though, for all the ugliness involved in actually running the French government, is not that the second highest office in France is such a barrier to the highest, but that more PMs don't meet with endings as awful and ignominious as the poor, hapless Béré's. Like our earmarks, French politicking needs a serious overhaul. The excesses of DeGaulle's ego led from the Fourth Republic to the Fifth. The excesses of Chiraquisme point to the need for a Sixth. 
posted by gbarto at 8:54 AM |
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Day By Day© by Chris Muir.Old TurkeyBlog here.
