PARIS — After four decades, France has returned to NATO's unified military command. At a stroke, President Nicolas Sarkozy overturned one of the pillars of French policy - and of the legacy of Charles de Gaulle, the founder of Mr. Sarkozy's own centre-right movement.
The decision is consistent with the way Mr. Sarkozy has governed since 2007. Whether seeking to reform France's judicial system, redrawing its administrative map, proposing a new alliance of Mediterranean countries or seeming to end an ambiguous foreign policy toward the United States, he is nothing if not ambitious.
The problem is that far too many of his decisions have proved purely symbolic (the ill-fated Mediterranean Union), badly conceived (judicial reform) or nakedly self-serving (administrative reform, which somehow managed to abolish only jurisdictions controlled by the opposition Socialists).
Many in Mr. Sarkozy's governing Union for a Popular Movement have become increasingly public in expressing their unhappiness. In effect, rather than according serious room for decision-making to Prime Minister François Fillon or his cabinet, Mr. Sarkozy has arrogated almost every lever of power to himself and advisers.
From the archives
Indeed, few informed observers doubt that Mr. Sarkozy's chief foreign policy adviser, Jean-David Levitte, has far more influence than Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. Likewise, on matters of domestic policy, Interior Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie has nothing close to the agenda-setting power of Claude Guéant, Mr. Sarkozy's long-time aide.
For all the authoritarian habits of General de Gaulle or François Mitterrand, Mr. Sarkozy's personalization of the presidency is unprecedented in the history of the Fifth Republic. He makes little secret of his disdain for members of his own party, luring Socialists such as Mr. Kouchner and Rama Yade into his cabinet and naming retired Socialists such as former prime minister Michel Rocard to head commissions and represent France internationally.
If he governed effectively, such departures might seem like a breath of fresh air for a society whose institutions seem increasingly ill-suited to the challenges of a multiethnic and postindustrial society. This was how many who supported his presidential bid viewed him. He was to be for France what Margaret Thatcher was for Britain - someone who would lead the country out of its impasse, conserving the best aspects of dirigisme but giving entrepreneurs room to grow, cracking down on crime and reforming education.
But Mr. Sarkozy has not governed effectively, as polling and his party's disenchantment make abundantly clear. His manic character - initiative spilling into initiative, each being the transformative solution to the problem at hand, and all opposition denounced as lies or cowardice - has worn thin.
On a number of issues, notably wages, employment liberalization and reform of the judiciary and secondary education, programs announced with tremendous fanfare have had to be delayed or withdrawn. Almost invariably, Mr. Sarkozy has blamed the minister in question, then moved on to the next subject to strike his interest. Meantime, his obsession with dominating the daily news cycle continues unabated. He has even appeared at crime scenes - not urban riots, but private crimes of passion, where no reason of state could possibly warrant a president's presence.
Given the pathetic state of the opposition, it is difficult to see what price Mr. Sarkozy will pay. But his style virtually guarantees that little of real importance can be accomplished.
At a recent press conference, U.S. President Barack Obama said he was loath to comment immediately on matters of great public importance before being certain he knew the subject in question. Many French wish such self-discipline could rub off on Mr. Sarkozy. Given his temperament, however, that hardly seems likely. As a result, an administration in which many had placed high hopes is lapsing into demagoguery and ineffectiveness.
David Rieff's most recent book, Swimming in a Sea of Death: A Son's Memoir, is about his mother, novelist-critic Susan Sontag.
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