Ol' Kosta was talking about France in the interwar period, and doing something different with it. I believe he was thinking a non-Soviet variant of communism, but I then suggested a sort of syndicalism. Whether he ends up using that or not, I'd like to examine that here.
For a POD, I honestly don't know. I could see frustration at governing coalitions switching around every six months or so boiling over, or a Great Depression that hits France worse than OTL doing the trick though.
Primarily I'm interested in governing structure and how the imperial structure adapts to syndicalism, or how syndicalism adapts the imperial structure.
For the first, probably a parliamentary or semi-parliamentary system, where workers, farmers and etcetera vote for unions to be represented in the legislative chamber, with various unions negotiating wages and whatnot with various other unions based on numbers, social worth of the occupation the union represents and skill and education required by members. I like the idea of an Executive Council, where industrial and service workers elect five members, farmers and agricultural laborers elect two, soldiers and sailors and other military and paramilitary personnel elect one and one elected by all classes, who would have a sort of prima inter pares seniority thing going on, and Presidency of the Council.
On the imperial level, the first thing would be to extend the rights of the metropole and French citizenship to colonial peoples, granting rights to Arabs, Africans and Indochinese. I think the Indian and American possessions would be lost to Anglo-American interventions, but let's assume the rest remains with Paris.
Step two would be to reorganize the various colonies and protectorates and mandates into Countries of the French Syndicalist Union. Countries would have workers' parliaments of their own, etc, adapted to local culture as deemed necessary. Four of the five would be elected from the new Pays (France, Maghreb-Syria, Afrique, Indochine-Pacifique.), with the last being elected at large throughout the Union.
Step three would be establishing industry in the former colonial Pays. Unions could do this as a sort of recruiting, and the Union as a whole would as well, to improve living standards and provide prosperity. Expect the Union to remain white-dominated for the first couple of decades, because the unions will be very important and initially mostly based in France. Eventually local unions will spring up, which may or may not choose to affiliate themselves to French unions.
Even more eventually the Union will have a multiracial democracy where French is the main language but Arabic and Vietnamese are also important and Christianity, Islam and Buddhism all have more or less equal claim (The Union will emphasis the egalitarian aspects of all three religions, and may even set up a Union Church for Catholics who don't wish to remain tied to Rome.)
So, essentially, the French Empire has been reformed into a cooperative syndicalist federation, where race is of lesser importance than class, religion ties in with the governing philosophy quite nicely and decolonization has been replaced with integration.
Of course, WW2 and the Cold War could fuck this up. Assuming Hitler isn't butterflied away, could this French Union put up a better fight than the Third Republic? I think so, as a larger element of French society would have benefited from the syndicalist system, there would be less governmental confusion, less desire to turn back the clock and greater aid from the Pays. Would this France still fall? Perhaps France proper, but the legitimate government could hold on and keep fighting from Algiers, and keep hold of the Arab and African Pays during the war, allied as OTL's Free French. (De Gaulle could still be an important figure, as syndicalism and Gaullisme aren't necessarily contradictory.)
Assuming the war goes more or less as OTL though, will the French Union remain with the the Anglo-Saxon powers or strike out on its own? The huge presence and influence of brown, black and yellow peoples would point towards a more independent policy and pushing for solutions for the colonial problems of the still-existing European empires. After all, they've solved theirs by treating them decently and providing hope and a chance at a better life, perhaps they'd outright support independence movements in hopes of gaining new allies/Pays. Probably. They certainly wouldn't support continued colonial exploitation, but they also would fear an expansion of Soviet influence.
In short, Europe's going to be an interesting place because it's where the ideas of capitalism, syndicalism and communism will converge, with possibly explosive results. Africa's going to be interesting because a large part of it will be at pretty decent living standards. Asia's going to be interesting because there's a bulwark of anti-communism and anti-capitalism just south of China, whichever way it goes, and a nearby example of a working socialist form for India. The world's going to be interesting because we very well might have a three-way Cold War, with the French Union being on an equal or near-equal economic footing as the US (Depending on how thoroughly France and Indochina get wrecked by WW2), far more democratic than the USSR and, by some metrics, the US, and a militarily formidable power. The French Army won't be as large as either of its rivals, its Navy will outstrip Moscow's and perhaps equal America's and its Air Force will be far superior than either, as well as a nuclear deterrent of its own.
Perhaps an Anglosphere Alliance in lieu of NATO? I will say that Franco-American relations will be much better than Franco-Soviet or American-Soviet relations, perhaps with an understanding that one bloc will help the other if the shit hits the fan.
(Reposted from Facebook.)
So, ideas and criticisms?
EDIT: I think the number of Pays would have to be changed, which would also change around the Executive Council a bit...
For a POD, I honestly don't know. I could see frustration at governing coalitions switching around every six months or so boiling over, or a Great Depression that hits France worse than OTL doing the trick though.
Primarily I'm interested in governing structure and how the imperial structure adapts to syndicalism, or how syndicalism adapts the imperial structure.
For the first, probably a parliamentary or semi-parliamentary system, where workers, farmers and etcetera vote for unions to be represented in the legislative chamber, with various unions negotiating wages and whatnot with various other unions based on numbers, social worth of the occupation the union represents and skill and education required by members. I like the idea of an Executive Council, where industrial and service workers elect five members, farmers and agricultural laborers elect two, soldiers and sailors and other military and paramilitary personnel elect one and one elected by all classes, who would have a sort of prima inter pares seniority thing going on, and Presidency of the Council.
On the imperial level, the first thing would be to extend the rights of the metropole and French citizenship to colonial peoples, granting rights to Arabs, Africans and Indochinese. I think the Indian and American possessions would be lost to Anglo-American interventions, but let's assume the rest remains with Paris.
Step two would be to reorganize the various colonies and protectorates and mandates into Countries of the French Syndicalist Union. Countries would have workers' parliaments of their own, etc, adapted to local culture as deemed necessary. Four of the five would be elected from the new Pays (France, Maghreb-Syria, Afrique, Indochine-Pacifique.), with the last being elected at large throughout the Union.
Step three would be establishing industry in the former colonial Pays. Unions could do this as a sort of recruiting, and the Union as a whole would as well, to improve living standards and provide prosperity. Expect the Union to remain white-dominated for the first couple of decades, because the unions will be very important and initially mostly based in France. Eventually local unions will spring up, which may or may not choose to affiliate themselves to French unions.
Even more eventually the Union will have a multiracial democracy where French is the main language but Arabic and Vietnamese are also important and Christianity, Islam and Buddhism all have more or less equal claim (The Union will emphasis the egalitarian aspects of all three religions, and may even set up a Union Church for Catholics who don't wish to remain tied to Rome.)
So, essentially, the French Empire has been reformed into a cooperative syndicalist federation, where race is of lesser importance than class, religion ties in with the governing philosophy quite nicely and decolonization has been replaced with integration.
Of course, WW2 and the Cold War could fuck this up. Assuming Hitler isn't butterflied away, could this French Union put up a better fight than the Third Republic? I think so, as a larger element of French society would have benefited from the syndicalist system, there would be less governmental confusion, less desire to turn back the clock and greater aid from the Pays. Would this France still fall? Perhaps France proper, but the legitimate government could hold on and keep fighting from Algiers, and keep hold of the Arab and African Pays during the war, allied as OTL's Free French. (De Gaulle could still be an important figure, as syndicalism and Gaullisme aren't necessarily contradictory.)
Assuming the war goes more or less as OTL though, will the French Union remain with the the Anglo-Saxon powers or strike out on its own? The huge presence and influence of brown, black and yellow peoples would point towards a more independent policy and pushing for solutions for the colonial problems of the still-existing European empires. After all, they've solved theirs by treating them decently and providing hope and a chance at a better life, perhaps they'd outright support independence movements in hopes of gaining new allies/Pays. Probably. They certainly wouldn't support continued colonial exploitation, but they also would fear an expansion of Soviet influence.
In short, Europe's going to be an interesting place because it's where the ideas of capitalism, syndicalism and communism will converge, with possibly explosive results. Africa's going to be interesting because a large part of it will be at pretty decent living standards. Asia's going to be interesting because there's a bulwark of anti-communism and anti-capitalism just south of China, whichever way it goes, and a nearby example of a working socialist form for India. The world's going to be interesting because we very well might have a three-way Cold War, with the French Union being on an equal or near-equal economic footing as the US (Depending on how thoroughly France and Indochina get wrecked by WW2), far more democratic than the USSR and, by some metrics, the US, and a militarily formidable power. The French Army won't be as large as either of its rivals, its Navy will outstrip Moscow's and perhaps equal America's and its Air Force will be far superior than either, as well as a nuclear deterrent of its own.
Perhaps an Anglosphere Alliance in lieu of NATO? I will say that Franco-American relations will be much better than Franco-Soviet or American-Soviet relations, perhaps with an understanding that one bloc will help the other if the shit hits the fan.
(Reposted from Facebook.)
So, ideas and criticisms?
EDIT: I think the number of Pays would have to be changed, which would also change around the Executive Council a bit...
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