Steering Transitions: Ecological Planning in Liberalized France

• In Event: Global and Transnational Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 12. Political Economy

Abstract

With the return of industrial policy, states now attempt to steer economic change under the rubric of national decarbonization. Fundamentally, this process relies on the ability of state planners to discipline the behavior of market actors. But how? This project addresses this question through a comparative-historical approach. Empirically, it draws on public records, interviews, and archival materials to compare two distinct eras of industrial policy in France: postwar planning (1946-1958) and “ecological planning” (2021-present). In both periods, I find evidence of financial repression — in this case, the strategic restriction of foreign investment — as a significant yet overlooked precondition. During the postwar period, France’s Foreign Exchange Control played a quiet yet crucial role in facilitating firm reliance on state-supervised credit. Meanwhile, today, France’s Foreign Investment Screening Mechanism is facilitating firm reliance on state venture capital. Nevertheless, variation between the two policy mechanisms entails divergent forms of discipline — one economy-wide, the other sectorally siloed. In theoretical terms, the project contributes to recent debates on developmental states and speaks to a broader cohort of countries pursuing rapid decarbonization a matter of economic planning. Its central claim is that effective discipline requires that state planners engineer dependencies that align market actors with public goals.

Author

• Gabriel Kahan, University of Wisconsin-Madison