Pension Reform in France: Let’s Dream a Little!
de Jouvenel, Hugues
Pension Reform in France: Let’s Dream a Little! - 2025.
85
The issue of an ageing population—a phenomenon which was among the easiest to predict, as is recalled at the beginning of this article—has undoubtedly been one of the subjects most often broached in Futuribles since its creation. For example, Alain Parant was already writing about it in March 1979 (issue n° 21) in an article “Croître ou vieillir [Grow or Age]”, in which he warned of the consequences that would eventually ensue in France for intergenerational balance and hence for the funding of pension schemes. Four decades later (and after so many other articles published on the subject in these columns, by demographers, sociologists, economists etc.), he shows here, with Hugues de Jouvenel, how the reforms of the French pensions system have been an obstacle course, though one which has yet to be completed. Their article goes back over the chronology of those reforms since the 1980s and the original mistake of setting a legal retirement age which, despite the legislators’ good intentions, ran contrary to developments in demography, to social justice, to the balance between the generations, and to the country’s economic dynamics. De Jouvenel and Parant break down the various successive attempts to reform the system, stressing their respective virtues and limits, and the various missed opportunities. And while the subject remains a topical one for a shaky French government, they call for the establishment of a points-based, universal pensions system, based solely on duration of contributions, without reference to a retirement age and closely geared in to employment policy.
Pension Reform in France: Let’s Dream a Little! - 2025.
85
The issue of an ageing population—a phenomenon which was among the easiest to predict, as is recalled at the beginning of this article—has undoubtedly been one of the subjects most often broached in Futuribles since its creation. For example, Alain Parant was already writing about it in March 1979 (issue n° 21) in an article “Croître ou vieillir [Grow or Age]”, in which he warned of the consequences that would eventually ensue in France for intergenerational balance and hence for the funding of pension schemes. Four decades later (and after so many other articles published on the subject in these columns, by demographers, sociologists, economists etc.), he shows here, with Hugues de Jouvenel, how the reforms of the French pensions system have been an obstacle course, though one which has yet to be completed. Their article goes back over the chronology of those reforms since the 1980s and the original mistake of setting a legal retirement age which, despite the legislators’ good intentions, ran contrary to developments in demography, to social justice, to the balance between the generations, and to the country’s economic dynamics. De Jouvenel and Parant break down the various successive attempts to reform the system, stressing their respective virtues and limits, and the various missed opportunities. And while the subject remains a topical one for a shaky French government, they call for the establishment of a points-based, universal pensions system, based solely on duration of contributions, without reference to a retirement age and closely geared in to employment policy.
Réseaux sociaux