Abstract
In contrast to the full-steam-ahead approach taken by their rivals across the English Channel, the French approach to financial liberalization has been more hesitant. Thatcher’s contemporary, François Mitterrand, was no free marketeer. The 110 Propositions that formed the core of the Parti Socialiste (PS) 1981 platform were steeped in the belief that the state had a responsibility to manage the economy. Far from being a liberalizer, Mitterrand began his presidency as a nationalizer, bringing the French banking sector almost entirely under state control, hoping to insert the already activist French state even further into credit allocation decisions. Yet despite these origins, Mitterrand would eventually preside over a radical modernization—and liberalization—of the French financial system.
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Notes
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© 2016 Gregory W. Fuller
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Fuller, G.W. (2016). France: The Ambivalent Transformation. In: The Great Debt Transformation. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137548733_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137548733_4
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