Avoiding welfare state retrenchment in France

France has successfully resisted pressures to retrench its highlevels of pension transfers, especially during the financial crisis of the 1970s and the creation of the European Monetary Union in the 1990s and can continue to resist with new labor activation reform. This article classifies France as a Bismarckian welfare state within the parameters of Esping-Andersen’s studies, but a Bismarckian welfare state that has proven capable of reform to maintain the basic structure of its system. It analyzes the viability of the pay-as-you-go funding for the pension system and offers solutions on how to keep the current system with the introduction of labor activation policies that include traditionally-excluded segments of the population like immigrants, the elderly, women and youth.