French capitalism transformed, yet still a third variety of.pdf

Economy and Society Volume 32 Number 4 November 2003: 526–554 French capitalism transformed, yet still a third variety of capitalism Vivien A. Schmidt Abstract Rather than one or two varieties of capitalism, this paper argues that there are still at least three in Europe, following along lines of development from the three post-war models: market capitalism, characteristic of Britain; managed capitalism, typical of Germany; and state capitalism, epitomized by France. While France’s state capitalism has been transformed through market-oriented reforms, it has become neither market capitalist nor managed capitalist. Rather, it has moved from ‘state-led’ capitalism to a kind of ‘state-enhanced’ capitalism, in which the state still plays an active albeit much reduced role, where CEOs exercise much greater autonomy, and labour relations have become much more market-reliant. Keywords: capitalism; France; state; CEO; business; financial markets; production systems; management–labour relations; economic management; industrial policy. Over the past decade, political economists have been divided over whether advanced industrialized economies are converging along the lines of a single one-size-fits-all neo-liberal version of capitalism (e.g. Ohmae 1990; Cerny 1994) or whether they fall into two main varieties: ‘liberal market economies’ characteristic of the United States and the UK (Soskice 1999; Lazonick and O’Sullivan 1997) and ‘co-ordinated market economies’ typified by Germany and many smaller European countries (Albert 1991; Hall and Soskice 2001). Gone is the third model of capitalism, ‘statism’, epitomized by France, which had found pride of place next to ‘liberalism’ and ‘corporatism’ during the Vivien A. Schmidt, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration,