Alternating Currents: Nationalized Power in France, 1946–1970 by Robert L. Frost

Abstract

808 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE safe” fission reactors is not examined, despite the fact that each of these sets of technologies has in place a historical record. Is there anything to be learned by contrasting these ongoing programs with previous efforts to augment energy choices? Implicitly, the book answers in the negative. Finally, the volume is all but silent about the role of science and technology in energy affairs. Other than a brief passage in the introductory chapter regarding the interaction of technology and culture, neither the generation of knowledge nor the capacity to innovate are discussed. This is a striking omission. It represents a major oversimplification of the complexities of coming to grips with an area high in scientific and technical content. Why, for example, are clean coal technologies always five years over the horizon, no matter what base year is being discussed? A historical account might be quite useful, but none is forthcoming. For those individuals coming to energy politics and economics for the first time, this book is an informative overview and introduction to the salient players and events. But for those already well immersed in the basics, The Political Economy of World Energy only serves as a reminder of how far we have to go to keep future energy crises from taking place. Robert W. Rycroft Dr. Rycroft is associate professor of international affairs and political science at the Center for International Science and Technology Policy, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. Alternating Currents: Nationalized Power in France, 1946—1970. By Robert L. Frost. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1991. Pp. xii + 285; notes, appendix, bibliography, index. $37.50. The relationship between state and industry and the role of technocratic ideologies in economic development have been major concerns for scholars of postwar France. Robert Frost provides considerable insight into these complex issues in Alternating Currents, his examination of France’s nationalized electric utility company (Électricité de France [EDF]). In tracing the utility’s history from its creation in 1946 to 1970, Frost shows that government officials, EDF managers, labor unions, and leaders of private industry all viewed the utility as the flagship of French industrial development. Changes and conflicts within EDF thus acquired national significance; understand­ ing the company’s history, therefore, sheds light on postwar industrial development in France. In the first part of the book, Frost guides the reader through the morass of French politics in order to explain the nationalization of the electric utility industry and the creation of EDF. Before World War II, TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 809 a plethora of private companies supplied French electricity using a multitude of frequencies and voltages. In contrast to those in most French industries, many utility leaders espoused a “technocorporatist ” ideology, in which “corporate paternalism merged with visions of efficient, technology-based growth, merit-based workplace hierar­ chies, and the rationalization of labor processes and investment decisions” (p. 20). After the war, the existence of a left-wing political majority, widespread critiques of interwar business practices, and ideological foundations laid by “technocorporatists” contributed to the nationalization of electricity. Consensus over the necessity of nationalization, however, did not mean that interest groups agreed over the shape that the new utility should take. Frost describes heated debates among politicians, industrial leaders, labor unions, and engineers over issues of state ownership, company organization, and the source and distribution of capital within EDF. State ownership was supposed to ensure that EDF would serve the public interest. Furthermore, new organizational structures, which included forums for worker participation in company management, led certain labor unions to hope that EDF would become a “workers’ paradise” (p. 74). The utility, in short, would blaze the trail to a beautiful new France. In the second part of the book, Frost describes the subordination of these ideals to the interests of private industry. A new class of “economist-managers” replaced “social progressives” at the top of EDF. These new leaders gained credibility by convincing the government, labor unions, and private industry of their expertise in economic modeling and forecasting. At the same time, however, and for many complex reasons, economist-managers began making economic and technological decisions that favored the...