Ten years ago, France created the civil solidarity pact, known as the Pacs. The Pacs is a contract entered into by two people, whether of the same sex or the opposite sex, to organize their household. Some remarkable things have happened since the Pacs was created:

  1. The Pacs is popular, and is becoming increasingly so. In 2007, more than 100,000 couples entered into a Pacs, and preliminary figures for the beginning of 2008 –I can't fathom why the data aren't available sooner– show a 44% jump over 2007.
  2. Benefits of a Pacs sound much like what you'd expect from marriage: favorable income and inheritance tax treatment, shared eligibility for benefits that one Pacs partner enjoys. Unlike a marriage, however, a Pacs can be easily dissolved.
  3. When launched in 1999, many commentators viewed the Pacs as gay marriage, or an ersatz marriage. Although same-sex couples do enter into Pacs, in 2008 the overwhelming majority –94%– of couples that contracted a Pacs were composed of a man and a woman.
  4. Are heterosexual couples entering into a Pacs instead of marrying? I'd argue not. The number of weddings celebrated has fallen slightly (3%) in recent years, but exceeds 250,000 per year. And in a quarter of the cases where a Pacs is dissolved, the reason is marriage.
  5. I'd suggest that the Pacs has become a secular form of engagement. This is supported by the average age of couples who first marry, which now tops 30 for men, and for women too. Just as France has an elaborate civil ritual to celebrate marriage, I'd take the position that the Pacs now is a civil variant of engagement.