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the market mechanism should instead apply to the realm of civil
society, finally torn away from the fangs of the state , and left free to
develop according to its own spontaneous (and of course positive)
rhythms. The old economic sector will, on the other hand, gradually
lose its postwar prominence in a no-growth economy .
The criticisms leveled against the Giscardian
septennat,
Mitter–
rand's first year in office, France's economic and social structural
priorities, as well as the search for social innovation protect these
three authors from accusations that they are right-wingers un–
favorable to the regime in power. (Only an increasingly margin–
alized Communist Party in search of some new identity indulges
in such attacks, but to its own detriment.) Closets's, Albert's and
Minc's ideas will count in contemporary French intellectual and
political debates and will comprise one of its more interesting
chapters since the end of the war. More importantly, the theses of
these three books constitute a new left-wing intellectual "space,"
reminiscent of the old
rocardisme,
which seeks to maintain a reform–
ist, modern , and open left-wing vision intact beyond the political
vicissitudes and ideological mistakes of the Socialists in power, and
beyond the bleakness of the economy.
In the 1970s it was fashionable to talk about France's new
economic dynamism which had catapulted her into the "major
league" of the most advanced industrialized countries through its
nuclear armaments, automobile, and banking sectors . Today in–
stead, anguish has replaced euphoria, as technocrats like Albert
wonder whether France may not be going down the same path of the
catastrophic 1930s, when she closed herself to the world and let
others bypass her technologically and industrially, while carrying out
ambitious and ill-timed social reforms . Albert fights hard against
the blindness of the 1930s and accuses the Giscard regime of having
failed to realize (perhaps for political reasons) that the economic
crisis was not conjunctural but deeply embedded. But he also ac–
cuses the Socialists of having carried out dangerous reforms such as
the thirty-nine hour legislation which can seriously hamper French
productivity and, therefore, its chances of economic survival. For
Albert, France still has a fighting chance if she drops all Malthusian
analyses, unrealistic ideological projects, and wills herself to enter
the new technological age of automation , computers, and advanced
industrial production.
Minc shares no such hope . For him, France and the rest of
