France is the source of its problems – not the rest of the world 法国当自省

Europe used to be a constant in French politics: no mainstream party questioned the benefits of further integration. This year the taboo has been broken. First François Hollande, the Socialist challenger for the presidency, said that if elected, he would renegotiate the eurozone’s new fiscal pact. Then Nicolas Sarkozy declared France could pull out of the Schengen zone of border-free travel and threatened to take unilateral, protectionist measures on trade that would clearly be viewed as illegal in Brussels.	在法国政治中，欧洲曾经是一个不存在变数的问题，没有哪个主流政党质疑过增进欧洲一体化的好处。然而今年，这个“禁忌”被打破了。先是向总统大权发起挑战的社会党候选人弗朗索瓦•奥朗德(François Hollande)表示，如果能够当选，就会对欧元区的新财政协定重新进行谈判。随后,尼古拉•萨科奇(Nicolas Sarkozy)又宣称法国可能退出申根(Schengen)自由跨境旅行区，还威胁采取单边的贸易保护主义措施，而这种措施在布鲁塞尔看来肯定是非法的。
Last week’s killings in Toulouse have also reignited fears – exploited by the far right – of French society under siege. The rise of anti-European sentiment, however, is just the latest “avatar” of a hostility to globalisation that has become a basic ingredient of political debate. In most developed countries, globalisation excites concern; in France, it is an obsession.	上周图卢兹发生的杀戮，再一次激起了“法国社会已陷入包围”的恐惧，极右翼则对这种恐惧加以利用。然而反欧洲情绪的兴起，其实只是对全球化的敌意的最新“化身”，而后者一直是政治辩论中的一个基本话题。在多数发达国家，全球化都会引发关切，而在法国这种讨论更是挥之不去。
Each year 80m tourists visit France to sample the art de vivre for which the country is renowned. But the French themselves seem to have lost the formula: poll after poll, they appear more and more pessimistic.	每年有8000万名游客为了感受法国最富盛名的“生活的艺术”(art de vivre)到法国旅行。然而法国人自己却似乎已经失去了生活的感觉，一次接一次的民调，总会显示他们变得越来越悲观了。
Overwhelmingly, they attribute their ills to globalisation: two-thirds consider it “disastrous”. This is despite the fact that the economies of Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands are all more “globalised” (taking the sum of imports and exports as a proportion of gross domestic product), while enjoying lower unemployment.	绝大多数法国人将法国自身的疾患归咎于全球化：三分之二法国人认为全球化是“灾难性的”。而实际上，德国、瑞士和荷兰都更加“全球化”（以进出口总量占国内生产总值(GDP)的比例来衡量），但它们却享受着更低的失业率。
Yet globalisation is at the heart of the French malaise. French people find this spontaneous phenomenon, which no authority steers, deeply unsettling. French political culture, the legacy of absolute monarchy, Catholicism and the Jacobins – with a hint of Marxism – finds it hard to admit that something can be good if it has not been conceived to be so. Globalisation fits the Anglo-Saxon outlook – heir to Mandeville and Adam Smith – but is directly opposed to the traditional French view. For a people in love with concepts and theories, this matters.	然而全球化的确处在“法国病”的核心。法国人深深地感到，全球化这个没有任何权威引导的自发现象很令人不安。法国的政治文化是绝对君权、天主教、雅各宾派(Jacobins)还有一点点马克思主义所留下的遗产，它很难承认，一种没有事先被构想成有益的事物也能够是有益的。全球化符合盎格鲁-撒克逊民族的视角——他们是曼德维尔(Mandeville)和亚当•斯密(Adam Smith)的后人——然而却与传统的法国观点截然相反。对于一个热衷于概念和理论的民族，这一点十分重要。
France’s problem is that it has imported many of the disadvantages of globalisation but few of the advantages. The biggest companies have benefited greatly from globalisation but this brings little to France itself: its share in world trade has fallen sharply and, over the past three years, CAC 40 companies shed 4 per cent of their French workforce while their global workforce grew 5 per cent. Zealous executives show little interest in their home country while politicians give one signal after another, prompting companies and talented people to leave.	法国的问题在于它引入了全球化的许多缺点，但是引入的优点则少之又少。法国最大的公司在全球化中获益颇丰，然而在这个过程中法国却获益极少：法国在全球贸易中的份额显著下降，并且在过去三年中，CAC 40指数的成分股公司裁减了4%的法国员工，而同时它们的全球员工却增加了5%。充满热忱的企业高管对法国本土几乎没有表现任何兴趣，而政客们的行为一再发出信号，导致企业和人才离开法国。
Worse: globalisation, which creates risks and opportunities everywhere, is exposing the injustice of the “French model”. The promise of equality, central to France’s republican pact, is visibly betrayed because it is always the same people who run the risks (especially that of losing their job) while others enjoy the opportunities (a good career and high salary). This reflects the social immobility of a country that puts too high a price on diplomas but where schooling perpetuates social division, with the routes to success almost closed to young people, women, ethnic minorities and those not born into “good families”. None of France’s big listed companies is run by a woman; deputies’ average age is 57, much older than in Germany, the UK or Sweden. A tiny proportion of the 882 people elected to the Assemblée nationale or Senate belong to minorities. And while 80 per cent of British billionaires are self-made men, just 30 per cent of French billionaires are.	更糟糕的是，在所有地方都会带来风险和机遇的全球化，暴露出“法国模式”的不公。平等的承诺在法国的立国理想中处在核心位置，然而对这个承诺的的背叛却昭然若揭。总是同一些人在承担风险（尤其是失业的风险），而另一些人却占有机遇（好工作和高薪水）。这反映出了法国社会流动性的缺失，在这样一个极端重视文凭、学校教育却使社会分裂永远存在的国家，通往成功的道路对青年、女性、少数族裔和没有生在“好家庭”的人们几乎已经关闭了。法国大型上市公司没有一家是由女性掌管的；法国国民议会(Assemblée nationale)议员的平均年龄是57岁，比德国、英国或瑞典老很多。当选国民议会或参议院(Senate)议员的882人中，只有极小部分属于少数族裔。英国亿万富翁中有80%是白手起家，而法国的这一比例只有30%。
How can the majority of French people trust their representatives, or hope to hold power themselves, when no one in the elite looks like them? And should one really be surprised that they reject the risks globalisation brings, when they know its opportunities will go to others?	如果多数法国人在精英阶层中找不到与自己相似的人，他们怎么能信任他们的代表，怎么能奢望自己掌握权力呢？既然他们知道全球化的机遇会流向别人，那么他们拒绝承担全球化带来的风险，难道真的令人惊讶吗？
These problems have nothing to do with Europe or with globalisation; everything to do with France’s closed economy and static society. This election battle should be fought on proposals to restore competitiveness, social mobility and equality of opportunity so that France can truly benefit from globalisation. So far, neither Mr Sarkozy nor Mr Hollande has any serious proposals.	这些问题与欧洲和全球化没有关系，反倒是与法国封闭的经济、一潭死水的社会有很大关系。这次选战的争夺应当关注于如何恢复法国的竞争力、社会流动性和机会均等，从而使法国能够真正从全球化中获益。到目前为止，萨科奇和奥朗德都还没有拿出任何像样的提案。
So long as the election debate revolves around scapegoats – Europe or globalisation – there will be no discussion of the real causes of French people’s pessimism. These have little to do with the rest of the world: they are “made in France”.	只要大选辩论还围绕着替罪羊展开，比如欧洲或全球化，导致法国人悲观情绪的真正原因就不能得到讨论。这些原因与其他国家没有没有什么关系，而完全是“法国制造”的。
The writer is president of Footprint consultants. His latest book is ‘Le pays où la vie est plus dure’	作者是Footprint咨询公司总裁，其最新著作为《生活更艰难的国家》(Le pays où la vie est plus dure)
	译者/王柯伦