Retour sur la politique des revenus: une réponse abandonnée face à la « crise du fordisme » en France

Basile Clerc

No 2025-26, EconomiX Working Papers from University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX

Abstract: This paper examines the relevance of the incomes policy advocated by Claude Gruson in the 1960s to address the inflationary pressures characteristic of the crisis of the "Fordist regime" in France. To this end, we draw on the unprecedented study of the Gruson report submitted to Georges Pompidou in 1964. Despite its theoretical coherence, this policy was rejected by Pompidou, who ordered the physical destruction of the report copies due to its "sensitive" nature. Rooted in the perspective of the regulation theory and enriched by neo-realist political economy, this study demonstrates how Gruson’s proposal, based on a “proto-regulationist” analysis of inflation, could have acted as an institutional stabilizer by limiting distributive conflicts at the heart of the crisis. Pompidou’s decision, emblematic of the realignments taking place in the 1960s, marks a step towards a neoliberal regulatory framework. The article thus highlights the interactions between structural transformations and political decisions, underscoring how the abandonment of incomes policy reflects the shifts within the "dominant social bloc" in 1960s France.

Keywords: incomes policy; crisis of Fordism; regulation theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E31 E64 M48 N00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 15 pages
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:drm:wpaper:2025-26

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