Few countries would seem less likely to succeed in the modern world of globalization, free trade and high-tech, speed-of-light capitalism than France. Widely caricatured as the home of the five-week vacation, the 35-hour workweek and the crippling public-sector strike, this overcentralized, overtaxed, state-heavy, tradition-bound, protectionist and perversely self-satisfied nation could not possibly survive in the competitive, market-driven international arena of today. Could it?
Think again. A new France is taking shape at the dawn of the 21st century. Like a newborn chick pecking out of its protective shell, the fledgling is only partly visible--a beak here, a claw there--but already it...
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