THE DECLINE OF TRADITIONAL STATE DIRIGISME IN FRANCE - THE TRANSFORMATION OF POLITICAL ECONOMIC-POLICIES AND POLICY-MAKING PROCESSES

During the Mitterrand years, successive governments' policies of dereg ulation and privatization have progressively deprived the state of man y of its traditional interventionist instruments. As a result of this, as well as of the internationalization of world trade and the economi c integration of Europe, French business has become more independent o f the state as well as more interdependent. With these changes in both business and government have come a concomitant transformation in Fre nch policymaking processes, such that the traditionally heroic governm ent policies formulated absent business input have been succeeded by m ore everyday ones, where business for the most part leads and governme nt follows.