Mitterrand’s First Two Years: An Advanced Welfare State in One Country?

After Francois Mitterrand was elected president of France in May 1981, and the legislative elections of June 1981 gave the Socialist party a solid majority in the National Assembly, a sense of euphoria spread through the French left, both inside and outside the new government. Everything seemed possible. In its first year in office the new regime attempted nothing less than a fundamental transformation not only of the economy but of the whole fabric of French society.

The Socialist government nationalized virtually all private banks. A number of key industrial enterprises in the high-technology sector, such as telecommunications, aerospace, data processing, and electrical equipment, also were nationalized. Certain older industri...