Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- List of acronyms
- 1 The end of French exceptionalism?
- 2 French economic performance in international perspective
- 3 France and the wider world
- 4 The changing face of Colbertism
- 5 The institutions of French capitalism
- 6 Labour: the French at work
- 7 Plough and pasture: lifeblood or drain?
- 8 Industrialisation, de-industrialisation, postindustrialisation
- Conclusion
- Glossary
- A national portrait gallery of twentieth-century France
- Bibliography
- Index
- Titles in the series
5 - The institutions of French capitalism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- List of acronyms
- 1 The end of French exceptionalism?
- 2 French economic performance in international perspective
- 3 France and the wider world
- 4 The changing face of Colbertism
- 5 The institutions of French capitalism
- 6 Labour: the French at work
- 7 Plough and pasture: lifeblood or drain?
- 8 Industrialisation, de-industrialisation, postindustrialisation
- Conclusion
- Glossary
- A national portrait gallery of twentieth-century France
- Bibliography
- Index
- Titles in the series
Summary
How societies organise economic activities is obviously crucial to their economic performance and the wellbeing of their members. As we have just seen, the French state took an early and intense interest in co-ordinating market activities. ‘The idea that the state is responsible for the public good is indeed a typically French idea which baffles most Anglo-Saxons’ (E. Suleiman). This attachment of the French to the vision of the state as the supreme arbiter of social processes and individual actions is put down to the country's historical legacy, its legal dispositions and, ultimately, its cultural preferences. But obviously, since France never attained the command economy stage, other institutions must be taken into consideration, those which operate the market or capitalist economy. A century ago Wilhelm Sombart (1863–1941) postulated a ‘weak disposition of the French towards capitalism’. While this still constitutes a controversial proposition with regard to the nineteenth century, it seems that the postwar development of the French economy has proved the founder of the German historical school wrong. To be sure, a deep distaste lingers in the national consciousness for commercial transactions, and anti-capitalist pronouncements are commonplace (as the popularity of anti-globalisation campaigner José Bové has shown recently). The French, however, like most people, are eager to secure the benefits of competition as consumers while safeguarding their money as producers.
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- Information
- The French Economy in the Twentieth Century , pp. 63 - 81Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004