American liberals have often looked to France for a model of what they would like to see in the United States: universal health care; low-cost day care; affordable universities; strong worker protections; sacrosanct social benefits; high taxes; large investments in green energy; a secular republic in a multicultural society; constrained defense budgets; modest economic growth, and lots of joie de vivre.

For a long time that model seemed almost plausible. Not any more.

What has unfolded in France in recent weeks--student protests against deteriorating schools turning into mass demonstrations against deteriorating economic conditions turning into violence and rioting against the state itself on a level not seen in years, and all this ahead of presidential elections that could wind up pitting the extreme left of Jean-Luc Mélenchon against the extreme right of Marine Le Pen--are scenes from a country coming unglued.

That's not because its finances or politics are broken, although both are. More deeply broken are the promises that were supposed to hold the country together: that the young would find opportunity and the old would have support; that the country could carry on as a vast entitlement state without having to compete as a nimble and enterprising one; that France would maintain its identity........

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