Privatisation in France 1993-94: new departures, or a case of plus ça change?

The present article focuses on the privatisation programme currently being implemented in France. It seeks to isolate the principal ways in which this programme differs from its predecessor of 1986–88, and to consider its likely impact on the French corporate landscape. This study finds the latest round of privatisations to be budget-driven and ideologically spent, as the convergence criteria for economic and monetary union specified by the Maastricht Treaty become top government priorities in the countdown to 1997 (or 1999). The interest the programme has generated is almost entirely restricted to which purposes are to be served (and which are not) by its receipts. Those who look to it for new departures may well be disappointed: All the signs are that dirigisme is alive and well in France, with establishment solidarity representing as powerful a force in French capitalism as it ever did.