An End to French Economic Exceptionalism? The Transformation of Business under Mitterrand

For a summary of the debates, see Kennedy Paul , “Fin-de-Siècle America,” New York Review of Books (1991). For a “revivalist” argument, see Nau Henry , The Myth of America's Decline (New York. NY: Oxford University Press, 1990). For a “declinist” argument, see Kennedy Paul , The Rise and Fall of Great Powers (New York, NY: Random House, 1987).

For discussions of the deindustrialization, see Levet Jean-Louis , Une France sans Usines? Second edition (Paris: Economica, 1989); Cohen Elie , L'Etat Brancardier: Politiques du Déclin Industrie! (1974–1984) (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1989); Datier Pierre Levet Jean-Louis Tourret Jean-Claude , Les Dossiers Noirs de I'Industrie Française: Echecs, Handicaps, Espoirs (Paris: Fayard, 1985).

The over forty interviews with top government and business officials encompassed Ministry of Industry officials, including two Ministers; and top managers (numbers 1, 2, or 3) of major public, private, privatized, and nationalized firms in heavy and light industry, in the energy sector, in electronics and high technology, and in retailing, as well as in banking and insurance. There were also a handful of management consultants and heads of business associations.

For example, Lévy-Lang André , head of Paribas, interview with author, in Paris, April 26, 1991, and Daniel Lebègue, number two at the BNP and former director of the Treasury, interview with author, April 26, 1991.

For example. Jean Gandois of Pechiney, interview with author, in Paris. July 2, 1991.

For example, Gallois Louis , head of SNECMA, and former Director-General of Industry 1982–1986, interview with author, in Paris, May 3, 1991; Roger Fauroux. Minister of Industry under Rocard and former CEO of Saint Gobain: José Bidegain, Fauroux's right-hand man at the Minister and a former top director at Saint-Gobain, interview with author, in Paris, March 7, 1991.

For a full discussion of the nationalizations, see Delion André Durupty Michel , Les Nationalisations (Paris: Economica, 1982). See also: Zinsou Lionel , Le Fer de Lance (Paris: Olivier Orban, 1985), pp. 68–71.

Strauss-Kahn Dominique , Minister of Industry in the Cresson government, formerly depute in the National Assembly and head of the Finance Commission, interview with author, in Paris, May 16, 1991.

Schmidt Vivien , “Industrial Management under the Socialists in France: Decentralized Dirigisme at the National and Local Levels.” Comparative Politics, 21/1 (October 1988).

Ibid.

Durupty Michel , Les Privatisations en France (Paris: Documentation Franchise, 1988).

International Herald Tribune, November 17, 1986.

Bauer Michel Mourot Bénédicte , Les 200: Comment Devient-on un Grand Patron? (Paris: Seuil, 1987), p. 107, fn. 7: And Morin François , La Structure Financière du Capitalisme Français (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1974).

L'Express, May 2, 1991.

“Stratégie du Capital et de l'Actionnariat.” working document, Institut de l'Entreprise, January 1991.

Beffa Jean-Louis , CEO of Saint-Gobain, quoted in Le Figaro, November 14, 1990.

1711. Lévy-Lang André , head of Paribas, quoted in Le Figaro, November 14. 1990.

Jacques de Fouchier, president emeritus of Paribas, cited in L'Express . May 2, 1991.

“L'Etat et les chefs d'entreprises,” L'Observatoire de la Cofremca, 5 (1981).

Le Monde, September 28–29, 1986.

SOFRES, L'Etat de l'Opinion 1987 (Paris: Le Seuil, 1987), pp. 141, 143.

“Patrons '78–91.” a documentary film by Gerard Mordillat and Nicolas Philibert, produced first in 1978 but censored at the time because François Dalle, CEO of L'Oréal, among others, objected. This was at a time when the PDG had not been used to seeing themselves on TV in interviews. They objected to the cutting. It was only recently aired, with an update and commentary by a few of the “new generation” of CEO.

“Le Nouveau réalisme.” L'Observatoire de la Cofremca, 11 (1983)

SOFRES, L'Etat de l'Opinion 1988 (Paris: Le Seuil, 1988), p. 31.

Ibid., p. 30.

Ibid., p. 32. Contrast this with the British, though, 47% of whom thought the privatization of British Gas was a “bad thing” in November of 1985, against 36% in favor.

SOFRES. L'Etat de l'Opinion 1989 (Paris: Le Seuil, 1989), p. 35.

SOFRES, L'Etat de l'Opinion 1990 (Paris: Le Seuil, 1990), p. 184.

Le Monde, May 10, 1991.

See Schmidt Vivien A. , “A Profile of the French CEO.” International Executive, 35/5 (September/October 1993). See also Bauer Mourot , op. cit.

Bauer Mourot , op. cit.

L'Express , May 2, 1991.

Schmidt , op. cit.

See, for example, Sainsaulieu Renaud , ed., L'Entreprise, Une Affaire de Société (Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1990); Archier G. Sérieyx H. , L'Entreprise du 3e Type (Paris: Seuil, 1984); and Riboud Antoine , Modernisation, mode d'emploi (Paris: Union Générale d'Editions, 1987).

“Meilleur Pilotage dans les Entreprises,” L'Observatoire de la Cofremca, 12 (1984).

See, for example, Gabriel Pierre Dupont , L'Etat Patron C'Est Moi (Paris: Flammarion, 1985)

For empirical pieces on French management before the eighties, see Priouret Roger , La France et le Management (Paris: Denoël, 1977); Harris André de Sédouy Alain . Les Patrons (Paris: Seuil, 1977); Xardel Dominique , Les Managers (Paris: Grasset, 1978); Vasseur Philippe , Patrons de Gauche (Paris: Lattès. 1979).

Lane Christel , Management and Labour in Europe: The Industrial Enterprise in Germany, Britain and France (London: Edward Elgar, 1989), p. 105; Horovitz J. , Top Management Control in Europe (New York, NY: St. Martin's, 1980), p. 67; Dyas G. P. Thanheiser H. , The Emerging European Enterprise: Strategy and Structure in French and German Industry (London: Macmillan, 1976), p. 246.

Laurent André , “The Cross-Cultural Puzzle of International Human Resource Management,” Human Resource Management, 25/1 (Spring 1986): 96. For the implications of this for internal management in France, by comparison with the United States and the Netherlands, see d'Iribarne Philippe , La Logique de l'Honneur: Gestion des Entreprises et Traditions Nationales (Paris: Seuil, 1989).

Gallois interview.

Lebègue interview.

Crozier Michel . L'Entreprise à l'écoute (Paris: Interventions, 1989).

Lane , op. cit., pp. 105–106; Gallie D. , Social Inequality and Class Radicalism in France and Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978).

Maurice M. Sellier F. Silvestre J.-J. , Production de la Hierarchie dans l'Entreprise: Recherche d'un Effet Sociétal (Aix-en-Provence: LEST, 1980).

For the Auroux Laws specifically, see Millot Michèle Roulleau Jean-Pol , L'Entreprise face aux lois Auroux (Paris: Les Editions d'Organisation, 1984); Holton Richard , “Industrial Politics in France: Nationalization under Mitterrand” West European Politics, 1/1 (January 1986): 77–78. For their limited effectiveness, see Smith W. Rand , “Towards Autogestion in Socialist France? The Impact of Industrial Relations Reform,” paper delivered at the 1985 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, New Orleans, LA, August 29-September 1, 1985.

Howell Chris , “The Dilemmas of Post-Fordism: Socialists, Flexibility, and Labor Market Deregulation in France,” Politics and Society, 20/1 (March 1992): 85–89.

Gandois interview.

Cofremca (1984), op. cit.

SOFRES (1987), op. cit. p. 145.

Ibid., p. 148.

See Schmidt , “Profile of French CEO.”

Ibid., p. 148.

Bessant J. M. Grunt M. , Management and Manufacturing Innovation in The United Kingdom and West Germany (Aldershot: Gower, 1985).

Drancourt conversation.

Monde Le , May 14, 1991.

NEDO, Making of Managers, cited in Lane , op. cit., p. 89.

Strauss-Kahn interview.

Bauer Mourot , op. cit., p. 255.

See Schmidt Vivien A. , “Patterns of State Intervention: The Case of Industrial Policy-Making in France,” paper prepared for presentation at the American Political Science Association National Meetings, Chicago. IL. September 2–6, 1992.