Fixing France's broken social model? An assessment of employment and labour market policy under the Sarkozy presidency

Taking as its starting point the programme and campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy in the presidential election of 2007 around the ‘value of work’, this article reviews and assesses the main reforms undertaken during the period of his presidency. It focuses on the reform of working time regulationsg through tax exoneration for overtime hours, minimum income benefit (the introduction of the Revenu de solidarité active), moves to reform labour contracts, measures to help combat youth unemployment and pension reform. The article highlights inconsistencies between the political discourse of structural reform and a practice of incrementalism caused by ideological ambiguities, mismatch between policy design and economic conditions, and the reality of policymaking in a complex and fragmented polity.