Table Of ContentPIERRE LAROQUE AND THE WELFARE STATE
IN POST-WAR FRANCE
OXFORD HISTORICAL MONOGRAPHS
Editors
p. clavin r. j. w. evans
l. goldman j. robertson r. service
p. a. slack b. ward-perkins
j. l. watts
Pierre Laroque and the
Welfare State in
Post-War France
ERIC JABBARI
1
3
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Contents
Abbreviations vi
Introduction 1
1. SolidarismandSocialInsurance 11
2. TheLawandCorporatism 30
3. TheCrisesoftheThirties 55
4. Vichy,theResistance,andFreeFrance 84
5. TheGenesisoftheLaroquePlan(1944–1945) 107
6. TheFailureofUniversalism(1946–1948) 132
Conclusion 156
Bibliography 164
Index 181
Abbreviations
AMGOT AlliedMilitaryGovernmentofOccupiedTerritories
AN ArchivesNationales
ANC AssembléeNationaleConstituante
Ass.Nat. AssembléeNationale
BP Belinpapers
CAC CentredesArchivesContemporaines
CET ConseilÉconomiqueduTravail
CFLN ComitéFrançaisdeLibérationNationale
CFTC ConfédérationFrançaisedesTravailleursChrétiens
CGC ConfédérationGénéraledesCadres
CGE ComitéGénérald’Entente
CGE ComitéGénérald’Études
CGPF ConfédérationGénéraledelaProductionFrançaise
CGPME ConfédérationGénéraledesPetitesetMoyennesEntreprises
CGT ConfédérationGénéraleduTravail
CHSS Comitéd’HistoiredelaSécuritéSociale
CIDC ComitédeDéfensedesIntérêtsduPersonneletdesCadres
CNE ConseilNationalÉconomique
CNPF ConseilNationalduPatronatFrançais
CNR ConseilNationaldelaRésistance
FFI ForcesFrançaisesdel’Intérieur
FNMF FédérationNationaledelaMutualitéFrançaise
FNSP FondationNationaledesSciencesPolitiques
IHS Institutd’HistoireSociale
LP Laroquepapers
MAS MinistèredesAffairesSociales
MRP MouvementRépublicainPopulaire
OURS OfficeUniversitairedeRechercheSocialiste
PBP PeterBaldwinpapers
PCF PartiCommunisteFrançais
POB PartiOuvrierBelge
PP Parodipapers
SFIO SectionFrançaisedel’InternationaleOuvrière
SHAEF SupremeHeadquartersoftheAlliedExpeditionaryForce
Introduction
In theautumn of1944,Pierre Laroque,a senior civilservantassigned to
theMinistryofLabour,launchedapolicyreviewwhichculminatedinthe
establishment of a French social security system the following year.
Laroquewaswellversedintheareaofsocialpolicy,andhehadadvocated
thereformofsocialinsuranceforoveradecade.Beforetheoutbreakofthe
Second World War, however, he had focused on other issues, namely
the prospective reform of the collective bargaining system. For much of
the thirties, in fact, he had advocated the creation of new corporatist
structures whichaimedtodefusesocial tensions by unitingtherepresen-
tatives of business and labour in the management of industrial relations.
These proposals reflected his concern with the persistence of industrial
strife in contemporary France, but they also reflected his preoccupation
with the necessity of promoting social solidarity, an objective which he
believedwastobemetthroughaninterventioniststatewhichencouraged
public participation through the medium of decentralized services. Lar-
oque’scorporatistviewsowedmuchtohisexposuretoadministrativelaw
as a student, and itsunderlying themes would remain central to his con-
ceptionofsocialpolicylongafterhehadlosthisillusionsaboutcorporat-
ism. Most importantly, these concerns would eventually influence the
developmentofthesocialsecuritysystemofpost-LiberationFrance.
By October 1945, Pierre Laroque had already enjoyed a long, varied
andsuccessfulcareer.Fromtheearlythirtiesonwards,hisworkhadbeen
concerned with various questions of public law and social policy. After
joining the Conseil d’État in 1930, he dealt with important cases in
administrativelaw,servedinvariousadministrativeposts,taughtacourse
at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques, and wrote a host of articles and
bookswhichhighlightedthewidescopeofhisinterests.1Duringthewar,
his career had taken an unexpected turn; he was dismissedfrom the civil
service because of his Jewish origins, and then became involved in the
1 See the exhaustive bibliography which is included in his memoirs. P. Laroque, Au
servicedel’hommeetdudroit:souvenirsetréflexions,363–76.
2 Introduction
ResistanceandFreeFrenchmovements.Bytheautumnof1944,hehad
returnedtotheConseild’ÉtatandtheMinistryofLabour,andheinitiated
a review that culminatedin the introduction ofthe social security ordin-
ances of October 1945. Laroque was thus a man of thought and action,
andhiscontributiontotheriseoftheFrenchwelfarestatewasshapedbya
set of ideological preoccupations which can be traced back to this exten-
siverecordofpublishedwritings.
WhileLaroque’sthoughtevokedadiversesetofinfluencesandevolved
during the span of a few decades, it remained defined by a solidaristic
conception of the state and society throughout his career. Echoing the
thought of Émile Durkheim, he believed in the functional interdepen-
dence of the individual members of society, and stressed that the task of
social policy was to promote social solidarity. These views were an out-
growthofhisstudyofadministrativelaw,andtheyexplainedhisadvocacy
ofcorporatismandsocialsecurityduringthethirtiesandforties.Solidarist
rhetoric permeated his writings, and his memoirs, published in 1993,
revealthatheremainedcommittedtotheseprinciplesnearlyfivedecades
aftertheLiberation:
Men and women are interdependent. Existence, the well-being of each
individual,istoalargeextentafunctionofthatofothers.Itisincumbent,
therefore,foreachtobecomeawareofthisinterdependence,ofthissolidar-
ity, and to take stock of its consequences with regard to his behaviour
towardsothers.Itisalsothedutyofthecommunitytoorganize,whenitis
required,thissolidarity.Mutualassistanceisanaturaldutyofeachindivid-
ualtowardsone’speers.Libertythereforedoesnotmeanselfishness.Onthe
contraryitimpliesanactiveobligationtobringone’sassistancetothosewho
are in need, to those who perceive a direct or indirect threat to their own
liberty.Solidaritymustmeanfraternity.2
In Laroque’s mind, social solidarity was both an objective fact and a
normative ideal, and these preoccupations lay at the root of the develop-
ment of the Laroque Plan, his proposals concerning social security relief,
fromtheautumnof1944onwards.
As Laroque saw it, social security promoted a radical agenda since it
aimed to cultivate a new climate of solidarity uniting all Frenchmen,
resulting in a new social order defined by an active citizenry and a new
socialconsciousness.Theseobjectiveswerefirstoutlinedinaspeechwhich
hehaddeliveredinMarch1945:
Theeffortrequiredtoaccomplishthiswilltransformourpoliticaldemocracy
intoarealsocialdemocracy,insuringboththesecurityoftomorrowandthe
2 Auservice,19.
Introduction 3
developmentoftheresponsibleparticipationofeachandeveryoneinthe...
management of this undertaking. This can only be achieved through the
profound transformation of our society. The problem which must be re-
solvedisnotonlyorprincipallyatechnicalproblem.Itconsistsspecificallyof
creatinganddevelopingnewformsofbehaviour,ofprofoundlytransforming
theveryspiritofoursociety.3
Theultimatetaskofsocialsecuritywasnotofamaterialnature,sinceit
servedaculturalandpsychologicalpurpose.Theseobjectivesreflectedhis
longstanding views concerning the psychological dimension of social
conflict, reflecting a line of analysis which he had espoused since the
thirties while evoking the utopian rhetoric of the Resistance and the
FreeFrenchmovement.
The reformist environment of the post-Liberation period might have
madeitpossibletointroducesocialsecurity,butitsunderlyingthemesand
stated objectives proved consistent with the principles which had driven
Laroque’scareerforoveradecade.AsaresultofhisstudyofLéonDuguit
andMauriceHauriou,prominentlegalscholarsassociatedwiththepublic
serviceandinstitutionalistschoolsofFrenchpubliclaw,hehadadopteda
solidaristviewofsocietywhichexplainedhissupportforaninterventionist
state.Thelatterhadbeenmitigatedbyhisbeliefinaformofadministra-
tivedecentralizationthatencouragedpublicparticipationinthemanage-
ment of public services. While serving on the staff of the Minister of
Labourin1931–1932,Laroquebecameinterestedinthedevelopmentof
social policy, and the research that he had conducted for the Conseil
National Économique turned him into an advocate of corporatism by
1934. Impressed by the purported achievements of Fascist corporatism,
hearguedthatthecorporationwouldprovidethedisciplinaryconstraints
required to make collective bargaining agreements binding and effective.
Thecorporatistmanagementofindustrialrelationswasmeanttofostera
new climate of social solidarity between labour and management by
unitingtheminanewforumfortheregulationofworkingconditions.
Laroque’ssupportforcorporatismwasbynomeansunique,sinceinterest
in corporatist politics had been a recurring theme in the public discourse
duringtheprecedingdecades.IntellectualslikeDurkheimandDuguithad
supportedcorporatism,whilethecreationoftheConseilNationalÉconomi-
que in 1925 had been inspired by the corporatist policies outlined in the
minimum programme of the Confédération Générale du Travail.4 During
3 Ibid. 199.Whilethisexcerpt istakenfromhis memoirs, itwasoriginally partofa
lecturehehaddeliveredinMarch1945.
4 T.V.Kaufman-Osborn,‘ÉmileDurkheimandtheScienceofCorporatism’,Political
Theory,xiv,4,(1986)638–59;C.Laborde,PluralistThoughtandtheStateinBritainand
