ABSTRACT
In the framework of this comparative research on the changes in telecommunications policy in the 1980s and 1990s, the French government has pursued a go-it-alone strategy, reflecting a high degree of state intervention and pursuing objectives aimed at promoting technological autonomy and catching up with international market leaders. The French political economy has been characterised by an active central government taking a leading role in industrial development. In France, competition policy is not an important element of industrial policy; as Darmon (1985:129) has put it: ‘In France everything is initiated by the state.’ Hall (1986) mentions four elements that make up the unique position of the French government: the state as a cohesive and centralised unit, relatively insulated from the demands of other social actors, effectively representing the public interest and equipped with the capacity to impose its policies on society. France has pursued a state-led growth strategy, in which the central government imposed its will on the market through central administrative planning, nationalisation, (selective) protectionism and the active promotion of strategic industries. The aim has been to ensure that domestic firms would be successful in catching up with industrial/technological leaders and achieving a position of industrial leadership (=ysman 1975, 1977, 1983; Katzenstein 1985).
