June 9, 2017 – The Social Democrat finds it fascinating to watch politics in a nation where social democracy is an established, ongoing experiment. No issue has been more prominent in French politics of late than France’s extensive employement code. Critics, like France’s new president, claim that its protections for workers go too far, hindering job creation. For the old-guard socialist left, the employment code is sacred turf, its critics traitors to the leftist project.  Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell offers a neat summary of the issue.