France: Securing the Republican Pact during the Cold War: Solidarity, Class Struggle, and the Making of French Social Security

This chapter reviews the domestic and international aspects that connected the development of French social security with the Cold War. Domestically, this study focuses on both political parties and the unions, which in France were entrusted with the co-administration of social security funds and which were therefore key players in the Cold War’s systemic competition. The anti-communist constituencies hoped that the co-participation of the workers to social security and generous welfare provisions would hamper the appeal of the communists. Social and political movements with different backgrounds elaborated third-way ideologies and approaches that aimed to combine individual freedoms and social justice. Internationally, the French governments used social policy as a tool to further the integration of the colonies and, after the end of the empire, to retain its influences over its former possessions through development assistance. At the same time, France aimed to expand its influence within the Western alliance by advancing the narrative of a European social ‘third way’ that was distinguished from US capitalism and Soviet collectivism. By outlining these domestic and international mechanisms, the chapter outlines a general interpretation of the links between the Cold War and the welfare state in France.