Solidarity as Political Strategy

Abstract

A heatwave in 2003 caused 15,000 deaths in France. This article examines the impact of the public health crisis on French public management, considering how government actors across various state institutions, including central and decentralized tiers of public administration, have been engaged in reform. It studies how these actors in the post-crisis reform process established responsibility and drew lessons. The paper shows that solidarity was used discursively in a game of political blameshifting and experimentation. It also points to the politics behind the framing of crisis enquiries.

Key words:

• France
• political reform
• crisis management
• accountability
• learning

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author is grateful to three anonymous peer reviewers as well as the special issue editors for their patience and encouragement to pursue my research further into the parliamentary debate.

Notes

1. It also draws on in-depth studies of heatwaves in France and the US. All translations are the author's own.