French planning and industrial policy

This paper deals with the contribution of economic planning to French industrial policy and performance. This was highly significant until the mid 1960s but declined thereafter due to a combination of economic and political factors. The inherent problems of across-the-board regulation in a complex industrial economy reinforced the displacement of the planners from the traditional French elite. In the late 1970s, planning had begun again to provide an informational support to other policies for restructuring industry in the face of the world market. The paper ends with an evaluation of the Mitterrand government's aspirations for more dirigiste industrial planning.