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The left did it to themselves, in a (successful) attempt to remain "electable".

I wonder where we would be today if the left hadn't been implementing the neoliberal economic consensus while in power for the past 15 years.

Possibly they would have won fewer elections (at least the left political parties believe this) but they would now be wiping the floor with the economic right in elections.

As it is, they have no credibility to challenge the economic consensus.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Sep 30th, 2009 at 04:25:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]
and he ran policies that were much less neoliberal than elsewhere (and worked).

And he lost because too much of the left still found that to be too centrist, with the results we know.

So this is not a black and white debate either.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Wed Sep 30th, 2009 at 05:11:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]
And because the French election system is seriously lousy ; and because Jospin dropped the gun in allowing the presidential elections to come before the legislative elections...

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Wed Sep 30th, 2009 at 05:27:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]
(And also he didn't try to get through any kind of proportional representation in the legislative assembly, which would have meant the many French left parties would have had another means of existence beyond the presidential election)

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Wed Sep 30th, 2009 at 05:29:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Don't rub salt in our collective wounds...

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
by Melanchthon on Wed Sep 30th, 2009 at 05:40:50 AM EST
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And also was a lousy electoral politician who thought people made up their minds on substance (and in the second round, where he was bound to be present, so it wasn't worth working hard on the first).
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Sep 30th, 2009 at 05:46:53 AM EST
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He lost much more for the reasons linca and I give, imo.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Sep 30th, 2009 at 05:48:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
with the reasons you state, but my point was that there WAS an exemple of the reasonably traditional left winning and then pursuing reasonably left-of-center policies that actually worked.

Of course, he (and his government) was demonized for it- witness the 35-hour week deluge of propaganda, or the "France is declining" meme.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Wed Sep 30th, 2009 at 06:59:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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