Working time has always been considered in France to be an area of responsibility for the State. The Acts on the 35-hour working week come therefore from a long tradition of State intervention to regulate employment and working conditions. This way of ruling working time is not found in other European countries. This pape presents the French specificity: a work sharing logic supported by the State. The aim at generating employment through a legal reduction of working time brought the government to draw up an extremely complex set of Acts. They are not restricted to defining legal work duration; they also reduce social contributions and determine a precise framework to negotiate collective agreements. Most of the evaluations of the consequences of the 35-hour Act show that its effects on employment are limited, that social relations have not improved and that inequalities among employees have worsened. The French way of reforming rests on the belief in the absolute power of public action and in the rationality of the State, and on a mistrust of social forces.only subscribers can see the full article