EVEN A FLATWORM IS SMART ENOUGH TO TURN AWAY FROM PAIN: French Socialists Aren’t Feeling the Bern.

France’s Socialist government, having concluded that socialist labor legislation is stifling job growth and propping up the unemployment rate, is enacting pro-business economic reforms over the objections of more left-wing members of the party. . . .

Valls’ decision is part of a long-running trend: For decades, the decline of the blue social model has been pushing many European countries, including ones we think of as social democracies, to abandon some of the more statist features of their economic agendas. Policies that worked relatively well in closed, stable, national economies of the mid-20th century fail to deliver in the open, dynamic economies of the 21st—and even center-left governments are forced to adapt to this reality once they take power.

But the fact that the changes had to be forced through by executive decree also highlights the challenges facing democratic governance on both sides of the Atlantic. Executive power in the U.S. has steadily expanded in the last two administrations, in part because of political rancor and Congressional gridlock. Most European governments have been able to avoid this outcome because Parliamentary systems are more conducive to building temporary political majorities. But as their countries continue to grapple with economic headwinds and social upheaval, it may be that Parliamentary systems, too, will start to show signs of decay.

President Trump will no doubt dispense with gridlock, declare that “I won,” and proceed to govern with a pen and a phone.