Germany, France and Postwar Democratic Capitalism

Front matter

GERMANY, FRANCE, AND POSTWAR DEMOCRATIC CAPITALISM EXPERT RULE

XX XY

ADNANA A /

Contents

List of figures ix List of tables xi Preface xiii

Introduction: mythical postwar settlement, actual state-led refoundation 1

2 Germany reinvents itself: the 1948-49 social market big bang 36 3 Germany’s new social market governance and its test 76 4 Framing a new exoskeleton for German civil society 104 5 France’s unsustainable Fourth Republic 130 6 The 1958 French reset of institutions and economy 155 7 The productivist Fifth Republic 180

Preface

My interest in the trente glorieuses has generational roots. During my teen years in the late 1970s, I felt that I was coming of age in a gap decade, that the ‘really big things’ had taken place earlier, and not only music-wise. That feeling was unfortunately amplified by the fin de siécle’s outlook. But it took me time to translate that feeling into a research agenda.

This emerged only in 2012, when I met Professor Jonas Pontusson, who agreed to advise me on a comparativist doctoral project at the University of Geneva. By then I had realised that the social-science literature on the postwar era featured mostly siloed narratives, seldom crossing into each other’s fields. I was frustrated by descriptive economics, legalistic approaches of institutions, and narrow accounts of social group interactions. Moreover, it struck me that most scholars, too focused on examining deep social forces, missed the state, the elephant in the room. I stumbled on the profound — and hitherto unexplored — similarities of the founding of the German Federal Republic and France’s Fifth Republic in 1948-49 and 1958.

In 2019, Jeffrey Friedman asked me to read the proofs of his book about technocracy, Power Without Knowledge, an argument he wrongly thought was untimely. This was a eureka moment, for I began connecting the siloes into a proper political economy analytical pipeline. I started to causally connect two distinct fields: the bright images of technological breakthroughs (like transatlantic jet flights and mass consumption) in booming hypermarkets and the grey pictures of civil servants in three-piece flannel suits. The contrarian in me began to suspect that while scholars commonly oppose expertocracy to democracy, it might actually be the case that expertise often underpins democracy.

Jeff died suddenly in December 2022 after commenting on my manuscript. Like many scholars who profited from his mentorship and from the journal he edited, Critical Review, I feel that his support and advice made this thesis-cum-book possible. I am also extremely grateful to Jonas Pontusson’s disinterested intellectual curiosity and, more generally, to the Swiss academic ecosystem. Its openness to foreign students, its cosmopolitan professorial corps, and its general smoothness are admirable, even more so for someone coming from across the border where the academy is gated, and xiv Preface not always by the best. Switzerland is an understudied bright specimen of social democratic Europe. I would like to express my gratitude to the Swiss National Science Foundation, alongside the University of Geneva’s Maison de l’histoire and Fonds Rappard for financing the open access edition of this book. I also warmly thank the members of my doctorate jury, Professors Lucio Baccaro, Cédric Dupont, and Peter Hall, each of whom offered me stimulating critiques. Their feedback has helped me transform a narrow thesis into what I hope is a broader and engaging argument.

Let me also express my gratitude to (in alphabetical order): Michael Barnes, Patrick Bloche, Claire Enders, Shterna Friedman, Dominique Jaillard, Douglas McCabe, and Nadir Moknéche. My greatest thank goes to my partner Francesco. I dedicate this book to him.

Procida, September 2023