Viewed against the grim backdrop of France’s decline, this year’s election campaign seems almost irrelevant. That’s a gloomy line from Michael Gurfinkiel’s “Can France Be Saved?” the lead story of the latest issue of Commentary. Gurfinkiel draws on a spate of recent books on France’s troubles to sketch out the full dimensions of the challenge now faced by Sarkozy. The first two sections of this long article contain material on immigration, demography, and family life that will be familiar in broad outline to many conservatives who have followed these issues for some time. I found the third and final section new and very helpful. There Gurfinkiel discusses the structure of the French constitution, the powers of the president (formal and informal), and the character of France’s bureaucracy. Gurfinkiel considers France’s uniquely powerful bureaucracy to be the greatest barrier to reform. This final section in particular is worth a read.