Former student of HEC and PhD student in philosophy at the University of Paris VIII, Julie Girard has published Le Crépuscule des licornes (Gallimard, January 2023). His next book, Les Larmes de Narcisse, will be published by Gallimard in February 2024.
Has the interventionism of the executive become the symptom of a democracy at bay? While the inflation curve remains stubbornly at high levels, continuing to hurt the purchasing power of households, Matignon has found nothing better than to ask large retailers to sell their fuel at a loss. This will be the case! Alas, wishful thinking is essentially hopeless wish. An axiom that will have escaped our president who without delay replaced selling at a loss by selling at cost. How could a low-margin industry, an actor in a capitalist system based on the free law of the market, accept such inconsistencies? In the name of responsibility, trumpet Mr. President and Madam Premier, to the distributors who, like Jacques the Fatalist, would be supposed to submit to it without batting an eyelid.
But it is not Diderot who wants! Grocers who know how to count were quick to remind them that all action is determined by previous causes and that nothing is written up there. Indeed, where does the inflation we suffer come from? Some will claim that it is the result of geopolitical tensions. Either! For a relatively limited part, because it is mainly state paternalism, which has plagued our democracies for more than a decade, that it proceeds. Faced with rising interest rates, the Macronist "whatever it costs" has become a damn heavy unpaid to bear. With all due respect to the supporters of the debt, the debt confessed is not half repaid. The stimulus of the Covid years, combined with anti-inflationary measures, only aggravates a problem that is now difficult to contain. Not enough to frighten the executive who persists and signs!
Anticipation has given way to reaction. Faced with their backs to the wall, the public authorities are agitating as best they can to find a solution to a situation whose deterioration they themselves have signed.
Julie Girard
Behind these economic considerations lies a major philosophical and political reflection on the functioning of our governments. The inability of Western democracies to anticipate the evolution of their economic and monetary policies reflects a paralysis of action that forces us to think. Anticipation has given way to reaction. Faced with their backs to the wall, the public authorities are agitating as best they can to find a solution to a situation whose deterioration they themselves have signed.
In Le Savant et le politique, Max Weber refers back to back two types of ethics that are resolutely opposed: on the one hand, the "ethics of responsibility", according to which the one who governs must answer for his actions and cannot offload their consequences onto others; on the other hand, the "ethics of conviction", according to which only the exemplarity of actions prevails, even if their objective is irrational. Observation of contemporary political spheres within democratic systems tends to highlight the gross neglect of the ethics of accountability. Can the government discard the consequences of its actions on the agents of mass distribution? Why should they pay for the exacerbated interventionism of the state for years?
How to replace reaction with action, put anticipation back at the heart of the decision at the risk of offending the ethics of conviction?
Julie Girard
This situation concerns not only the France, but many democracies, starting with the United States. What is President Biden's proposed Inflation Reduction Act to reduce U.S. inflation, if not a stimulus to raise prices? The equation is simple: the larger the stimulus, the more consumption grows, the higher the price. The six trillion released by the US government between 2020 and 2022 is the best proof of this. If supporting the economy may have been a necessity at one time, was the aid not disproportionate, ultimately worsening the situation of households instead of improving it? Interventionism has become a vicious circle from which it seems increasingly difficult to extricate oneself. The cause? The legitimacy of our leaders is at half-mast, who no longer have the power to implement the measures necessary to improve the situation.
Meanwhile, thousands of households are suffering from the lack of sobriety of our representatives. The middle class is harmed by the inconsistency of measures taken at the drop of a hat. This observation is all the more alarming because it ultimately threatens the very foundations of our democratic systems. An inflationary situation paves the way for a rise in extremism. Saving our democracies, protecting them against populism is a constant commitment that we must be ready to honour. How to replace reaction with action, put anticipation back at the heart of the decision at the risk of offending the ethics of conviction? The issue is worth raising. May a wind of responsibility finally blow!