For France, Sagging Self-Image and Esprit
Special report, Liberty, Fraternity, Anxiety, finds France, which remains rich and enjoys international importance beyond its wealth, is racked by corrosive anxiety and introspection; unease appears linked partly to rigidity of highly centralized system, in which nation's technocrats, who planned and managed country's reconstruction after World War II, appear overtaken by global economy and seem ill-adapted by formal training to its challenges; political elite is widely seen as group of cloned eggheads, out of touch with population, and labor unions, parading in rags of exhausted socialist dream, often seem equally fossilized; there is pervasive sense that not only jobs, but also power, wealth, ideas and national identity itself are migrating permanently, and at disarming speed; rapid technological innovation, radical strategic shifts, Internet and global market that have contributed to optimistic mood in US, have cast ominous cloud in France, where globalization is portrayed as death of national culture and high unemployment is attributed to untrammeled market forces and immigration; economy grew slightly more than 1 percent during past year, and unemployment rate has swelled to 12.7 percent, or more than double rate in US; photos; graphs (L)
