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October 23rd, 2010 10:35 am
British & French Definitions of ‘Liberty’

Today’s New York Times draws out an helpful distinction between British and French notions of liberty.  The context is each country’s reaction to the growing public sector spending crisis.

“France’s problem is that, for too long, the economy has been run as a kind of job club for French workers,” said an editorial in The Spectator, a conservative British magazine. “Britain and France believe in liberty, but have different definitions of it.”

While the British believe in “liberty from government,” the editorial said, the French “still like the big state and squeal at the prospect of being removed from its teat.”

The French also pay higher club dues and expect commensurate rewards. French pensions can reach three-quarters of a working wage, compared with just over two-fifths in Britain. So, if French workers and teenagers strike over their pensions, there’s plenty to protest about.

One of the consequences of France’s keener devotion to socialism is a reduced sense of class conflict.  Not so in Britain.

If Britain falls prey to protest, there will be sharper overtones of class struggle than solidarity. Britain is a more divided society than France. Wealth is more ostentatious, poverty more visible. People in Britain have learned to have sharper elbows in pursuit of individual gain, while France prides itself on a broader concordat.

“Social confrontation is part of our democracy,” said Prime Minister François Fillon, “but social consensus is, as well.”

How each country’s government handles the coming backlash to ‘austerity’ in public spending will do much to define the future of freedom for their respective citizens.  Hopefully, they can make a credible argument that limited government and greater individual opportunity go hand-in-hand instead of coming to blows.

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