The book. They are omnipresent in the daily life of the French. Retirement pension, paternity leave, reimbursement of medical expenses, support system for the long-term unemployed… Social policies cover many areas of our personal and professional lives and represent, for public authorities, a considerable financial challenge: they “today absorb more than half of public spending, for social benefits alone, which represents 31% of France’s GDP in 2018”indicate Olivier Giraud, director of research at the CNRS and Gwenaëlle Perrier, lecturer at the Sorbonne-Paris-Nord University.
In the work of which they are responsible, Social policies: the state of knowledge (La Découverte), the two authors offer an in-depth analysis of these social policies, and with it of the state of research on the subject, in France and around the world.
Protection and support
From the establishment of the social state at the end of the 19th centuryand century to contemporary developments (the creation of a fifth branch of Social Security devoted to autonomy), we are witnessing the complex construction of protection and support mechanisms. For each of them, a constant: the multiplicity of actors who come into play to ensure its construction, its successive reorientations, its implementation.
The State is obviously at the forefront, but it is not alone. Local authorities also have their place, thanks to decentralization movements, as do supranational institutions, first and foremost the European Union. Associations, professional groups (liberal doctors, mutualist movements, for example) also played their part, just like employers, of the paternalistic family policy in the industry of the XIXand century to “Battle of Charges” conducted in the face of social security contributions.
The book details how these policies are the product of compromises and battles for influence between these different actors. Carried by the prevailing economic winds and political dynamics, they have also adapted to the challenges of their time, under the influence of social struggles (for pensions) and societal struggles (for crèches and childcare facilities).
“Assistance” and “figure of the voluntary unemployed”
The collective essay also reports on original research themes, suitable for renewing the approach to the subject and allowing a better understanding of the inclinations of social policies. The influence of cultural representations on social protection systems, for example.
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