Planning and Economic Progress in France

Abstract

FRANCE, it is said these days, is the “sick man of Europe,” a dubious honor once bestowed on the crumbling Ottoman Empire. To the outside observer it seems as if crisis following crisis is the “normal” state of affairs in France. Within France, the illusion that the post-Liberation social order would somehow be fundamentally different from that of the prewar regime is no more; politically, economically, and socially France today seems distressingly similar to the France of yesterday.Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.