France in the era of global transformations

Abstract

Since joining the current stage of globalization, France has changed considerably. Shifts occurred in all spheres of society, but they were not synchronous. The most dynamic area – the economy-was the fastest to «react» to France's entry into the global economy. In the social sphere, the changes were slower than in the economy, but they were very profound: they affected the working class, employees, and the middle classes, which were numerically reduced and fragmented. In the mid-1990 s, France's foreign policy began to adapt to the new world order that emerged as a result of the collapse of the USSR. This forced the French political class to reconsider its foreign policy attitudes and «to make lower its ambitions». By the second decade of the twenty-first century, the political landscape of the country had changed: traditional parties had collapsed, and radical populist parties and movements («Unconquered France» of J.-L. Melenchon and «National Union» of M. Le Pen) had become stronger on the left and right flanks. Against the background of these large-scale changes, social protest movements have emerged and intensified in France; the split between society and the elites has acquired unprecedented proportions. To these trends and phenomena, the coronavirus pandemic has been added, which poses a huge number of problems for the country's authorities to solve.