Atelier PACTE-LET

A Narrative Policy Analysis of the Franco-German Reconciliation

The Franco-German Elysée Treaty (22.01.1963) created an organization that still exists today: the Franco-German Youth Office. Although the Office has been progressively marginalized, at one time it was a significant program. During the 1960's, it implemented a policy of mass youth exchange between the two countries. This policy is a reminder of the dream of European federalists to build a European "demos" through the socialization of a new generation. This paper relies on the so called "cognitive frames" in Policy Analysis to analyse the intellectual underpinnings of the Franco-German Youth Office program. I show that the actors agreed on a voluntarist policy narrative which forecasted the end of the old Franco-German antagonism after the development of such a mass youth exchange policy. I argue that this narrative was an ideology. It was not politically neutral. It was constructed by some political actors and served their interests. Yet, it succeeded in creating a new reality. It made sense for everybody, including the participants of the programme. The fact that this narrative succeeded in generating believes is not trivial. It allows us to understand how the Franco-German Youth Office spread political norms in its sphere of influence. I show that Paul Ricoeur's theory of "emplotment" is very useful to understand the process. As any other narrative, this one drew together disparate and somehow discordant elements - events (the Franco-German wars), characters (young people, the old generation), and actions (the meeting of young people) - into the concordant unity of a plot that has a temporal span.