The Unfinished Revolution

The 35-hour work week remains unfinished business in French society. Neither fully implemented nor entirely abandoned, it exists in a liminal space reflecting broader uncertainties about work's future. For some, it represents civilization's advance—the gradual liberation of humanity from excessive toil. For others, it symbolizes economic decline—the preference for leisure over achievement.

This ambiguity might be the 35-hour week's most important legacy. By attempting such radical change, France demonstrated that alternative economic arrangements are possible. The implementation's difficulties showed that change requires more than legislation—it demands cultural evolution, institutional adaptation, and ongoing negotiation. The partial success and partial failure provide rich material for future experiments.

As automation advances and climate change demands economic transformation, questions about working time will intensify globally. France's experience—messy, contentious, incomplete—offers no simple answers but valuable experience. The 35-hour week revolution, whether judged success or failure, expanded imagination about how societies might organize work in service of human flourishing rather than mere production.

The debate continues in French workplaces, political forums, and café conversations. Each generation must decide anew how to balance work's demands with life's possibilities. The 35-hour week, whatever its future evolution, has permanently marked French culture and provided the world with an ambitious experiment in reimagining the relationship between labor and leisure. That conversation, begun in earnest at the millennium's turn, seems likely to define much of the century ahead.

Major Strikes and Social Movements

The strike—la grève—occupies a unique place in French society. While labor actions in other countries are often seen as failures of negotiation, in France they represent democracy in action, the legitimate expression of popular will against institutional power. From the legendary May 1968 to the Yellow Vest movement of 2018-2019, French social movements have repeatedly reshaped not just labor relations but the entire social contract.