Where Now for European Social Democracy? - Policy Network

MARISOL TOURAINE 99crucial. In France, this is not currently the case. Support should betargeted at ensuring the continuity of rights in whatever situationindividuals find themselves. Employment rights should no longer belinked to a particular job, but to the employee; thus, he or shewould preserve accumulated rights, for example, in training orexperience. 6 This is what is at stake for French socialists: professionalsocial security. This way offers a more promising path than the growthin constraints on employment contracts, thus individuals would beendowed with what John Rawls calls social capital, which they can usewhen they see fit. 7Differentiation of protection is also about targeting policies to takeaccount of professional movement: hence the reform of the currentpension system in France has been managed in a rigid way, whichimposes the same rules on everyone, without taking into accountfactors such as the physical demands of the job. A simple criterionwould allow us to take this into account: life expectancy.In a more general way, policies of solidarity should also be policiesthat allows for autonomy and independence. The taking of risks, thepursuit of one’s own projects, and also the ability to live without beingdependent on someone else through old age or handicap is very muchat stake in our societies.Third principle: make work pay and reduce poverty. Principallyfounded on work, social rights have the tendency to be reduced forthose who leave the world of work or who have precariousemployment. Precarious employment, often a symbol of poverty, hasreturned to French society, after its gradual disappearance betweenthe 1960s and 1990s. At the same time, the age of entry into theworkplace has increased, and the age of exit has fallen. A major axisof social policy, in particular in France, is the rise in the level ofeconomic inactivity, which has been largely unaffected by policiesdesigned to get those over 55 years of age back into work.Making work pay means reducing poverty. The new poor, whetherthey work or not, are reduced to state assistance. The weakestemployees should receive long-term contracts which are lessconcerned with the detailing of the conditions attached to a particularactivity than with guaranteeing access to employment to those people