From State to Market?: The Transformation of French Business and Government

Description

The Mitterrand years saw the transformation of business and its relationship to government. From State to Market details the governmental policies toward business that went from nationalization to privatization, deregulation, and ever-increasing European integration, bringing with them the move from a dirigiste, or state-directed, economy to a more market-oriented one. Professor Schmidt profiles the players, the interpenetrating elite of top business and government officials who share common state educational history and career track and who, as the beneficiaries of the all-pervasive culture of the state, have managed not only to maintain their hold in the ministries but also to colonize industry. This book, which spans the fields of public policy and political economy, contains both new empirical information - the results of over forty interviews with top business and government officials - and a new theoretical framework that sets French state-society relations in comparative perspective.

"The bibliography is excellent, especially with respect to the French-language political economy literature. Although this book's cataloging data place it on the economics shelf of the library, it is as much or more a study of politics and is truly a work of political economy. It will prove broadly valuable to social scientists in postwar France and Europe." Choice "...this is an excellent book that presents a great deal of information about the transformation of the French economy in the 1980's and early 1990's and provides a starting point for future research. Anyone interested in French political and economic development and the prospects for European economic integration will profit from reading it." Michael S. Smith, Business History Review