Contradictory things are being advocated. Health care reform at least intuitively looks pro-small business. But mandatory vacation days and high unemployment benefits? If they are paid out by the hiring company? I doubt that is helpful for small businesses, who can't shift around workers as easily and will be discouraged from hiring if the costs of firing are so high.

And France isn't a nation of small businesses. Their best industries seem to be those really complicated infrastructure ones that require a lot of state intervention (bullet trains, nuclear reactors) and luxury goods (LV). It may have been nice to have that welfare cushion during the financial crisis, but that's a separate and potentially contradictory goal to encouraging small businesses.

And then there's Taiwan. It has always been a country of small and medium sized businesses, and to my knowledge, there was no uptick in this when national healthcare was implemented in the 90s. It could be high at a percentage for other reasons, though, and that it was so prevalent made it difficult for there to be any additional uptick.