Jean-Charles Asselain

L’incartade socialiste de 1981

EnglishIn this text, which builds off of an oral presentation delivered during a research seminar, the author first describes the dramatic political U-turn that occurred in 1983 as the result of the so-called “inversion of priorities” in terms of economic policy. He then outlines the strong continuities that existed between French economic policy at the end of the 1970s and its development during the 1980s, offering a number of new chronological perspectives. In the light of this author’s mid-term macro-economic analysis, the brief window of time between 1981 and 1983 is viewed as a moment of economic and social failure, the single most important factor – more so than any neoliberal economic arguments – which helped to convince the country that there was no reasonable alternative to austerity and the primacy of the private sector. francaisDans ce texte issu d’une communication lors d’un seminaire de recherche, l’auteur souligne d’abord la rupture politique que constitue le tournant de mars 1983, du fait d’une « inversion des priorites » en matiere de politique economique. Il s’attache a definir des continuites fortes entre la politique menee a la fin des annees 1970 et celle des annees 1980, et offre de nouveaux decoupages chronologiques. Enfin, a l’aulne de son analyse macro-economique de moyenne duree, la parenthese de 1981-1983 apparait comme un echec economique et social qui aura contribue, plus que n’importe quelle argumentation liberale, a ancrer la conviction qu’il n’existe aucune alternative possible a la politique de rigueur et au primat de l’entreprise privee.