Résumé (EN)

The French welfare state is based on an ambivalent relation between a universalist and a profession-based approach which affects the entire spectrum of relationships between the State and the various social groups. With the 1967 reforms, the notion of a social democracy based on management of the programs by the beneficiairies was replaced by the notion of a joint-management of certain programs by the social partners. This latter approach takes the form of employer-employee joint-management schemes in which the multiplicity of unions tends to guarantee the predominance of the employers. These joint institutions have tried to respond to the increase in unstable employment and unemployement through a strengthening of the insurance aspect of their programs. In so doing they have strengthened professional solidarities over national solidarity. The social groups which are not part of the core group of regularly employed workers must therefore look for some form of representation in other institutions