[nicbou]

Is the French government more responsive than those of neighbouring countries?

[boricj]

Probably because we have a well established history of regularly changing regimes. Since we overthrew royalty in 1789 we've had five republics, two empires, three monarchies and a bunch of short-lived totalitarian regimes, coups and other major political events.

If anything, the longevity of the Fifth Republic is starting to become unusual (only the Third Republic and the Ancien Régime have lasted longer). Maybe we're overdue to flip the table again as per tradition.

[Lerc]

How well did they turn out for people each time?

[soco]

Health insurance, unions, paid vacation... al in all I'd say not that bad.

[sarchertech]

Plenty of other countries have those things as well. And plenty of countries that have even more frequent political upheaval don’t have those things.

I don’t know that regular political violence is positively correlated with worker protections.

[tremon]

> I don’t know that regular political violence is positively correlated with worker protections

In fact, it's quite easy to find examples of political violence being used to reduce worker protections: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-union_violence_in_the_Uni...

[Lerc]

also

>two empires, three monarchies and a bunch of short-lived totalitarian regimes, coups and other major political events.

Do you think you'd still have the Health insurance, unions, and paid vacation after another roll of the dice

[boricj]

I'm only pointing out that ever since the French revolution, we have a rich history of regime change (and also of strikes and demonstrations). Some were due to external factors (like the Vichy régime during WW2) and some were bloodless (like the end of the Fourth Republic).

Us rolling the dice whenever we have a major political crisis is a meme at this point, for better or for worse we're just not the kind of people to keep the same constitution around for 250 years.

[nicbou]

I don’t think that addresses my question.