ABSTRACT
The relationship between public and private welfare in France has never been a zero-sum game. On the contrary, since the nineteenth century, there have been phases of mutual growth between public and private welfare. To understand the process, this chapter is based on the ‘mixed economy of welfare’ concept, largely neglected in current French research. After returning in the introduction to the construction of the social state and its different phases, the chapter focuses on the last period, that of the years 1970–2000, which seems to be the third great period of expansion of French welfare.
If this period can be divided into two principal phases, these form the two sections of this chapter. Between the late 1970s and 1988, mutual growth was spurred by the urgent need for new welfare safety nets, roping in public authorities and associations alike – even if, ultimately, such efforts were unable to stem the rising unemployment and job instability that marked this period. Since 1988, however, the need was felt for a more curative system to fill the gaps in welfare aid based on employment schemes’ [insertion] and labour laws – accompanied, paradoxically, by the new (and impressive) growth of emergency aid.
