On April 23rd 2024, The UC Berkeley Center of Excellence in French and Francophone Studies hosted a lecture and reception to celebrate their launch, featuring member of the French National Assembly, David Amiel. This event was also sponsored by the Institute of European Studies and the Political Economy Program, and boasted approximately 30 attendees.
The event’s moderator, Jonah Levy, is currently faculty director of the Center and made note of his gratitude towards the French Embassy and Consulates support in aiding the launch.
Before serving as a member of the French National Assembly, Amiel coordinated the conception of Emmanuel Macron’s campaign platforms and worked at the Elysée as policy adviser to the President. In 2019, he co-authored a book titled “Le progrès ne tombe pas du ciel” with Ismaël Emelien, which was briefly mentioned in this lecture in connection to his belief that progressivism offers the most effective response to the global rise of populism.
In his presentation, Amiel used a simplified economic framework to examine what classic stories can teach us, explained the distinction between vertical and horizontal policies, and provided an overview of France’s recent economic history. Drawing on economist Charles Serfaty’s “Histoire économique de la France: De la Gaule à nos jours” and providing examples of big developments from the 1950s and 1960s, such as the Concorde, Airbus, nuclear power plants and infrastructure investments for examples of vertical policies, Amiel argued that through these and massive horizontal policies, such as investments in education, trade openessness with EEC and competitiveness maintained by regular devaluations, France was able to catch up with the United States and other global economics post-war.
In his next section, “How to move on?”, Amiel argued that humanity is indeed at the technological frontier, but rather than focusing on a neoliberal approach that disregards vertical policies, France still needs a combination of horizontal and vertical approaches. He believes the policies of the 1980s and 1990s, which saw vertical policies rolled back and horizontal reforms understated, led to the poor state of the French economy in the 1990s and 2000s. France’s economy no longer had the assets of the old model, but had all the liabilities of the new world, which set the stage for France’s unique difficulties in relation to the global financial eurozone crisis.
Amiel considers the 2012 Louis Gallois report to be a defining moment in understanding how France arrived at the point of unsustainable trade imbalances, and cites this report as the moment labor competitiveness became a key part of government. This subsequent emphasis on competition is also what he believes opened the door for Macron and his new party, as all of these changes happened under a socialist government, creating insurmountable tensions with the far-left, and changing the way political debates were framed.
Amiel argues that Macron’s administration brought coherence and credibility, as it was able to embrace programs neither partisan group had embraced before. Additionally, Macron was open to looking at how to implement reforms and modernize the economy, while keeping key elements of the welfare state in place. Amiel sees this as a turning point for France as said reforms have produced clear signs of improvement such as lessening unemployment, attracting foreign investment, and creating industrial jobs.
Amiel positions the COVID-19 pandemic as an under-stated shift that created a new agenda, similarly to how the eurozone crisis has done before. He explains that the ideological conversation has started to emphasize resilience, not solely growth and productivity. He emphasizes an evident need to support new companies and industries with innovation. In order to cultivate resilience, industrial policy now needs to draw lessons and see failures from the past, even as it is now applied in industries such as clean energy, AI, space, and biotechnologies.
Finally, covering 2024, Amiel poses “Where does France stand in the global conversation?”, reflecting on the shifting importance of economic goals in politics, and France’s environmental policies. He argues that now climate policy concerns all departments, viewing the ‘planification écologique’ as mirroring the ‘planification’ after World War II, in which France had to be reconstructed and modernized. At the same time, he notes that addressing working class and middle-class anger is important, and specific, targeted, and clear communications can help lessen the pessimism associated with globalization and on-going crises that are at play throughout the west. For understanding these deeper political issues now entertwined with economic policy, Amiel suggests reading “The rise of populism and the collapse of the left-right paradigm” by Yann Algan and Daniel Cohen.
The event ended with a lively Q&A on the growth of the far-right and the economic prospects for France in the near future.