ABSTRACT
When, on 26 October 1995, President Chirac announced a two-year austerity plan intended to help France reduce its budget deficit, many observers were reminded of Mitterrand's 1983 commitment to EMS discipline and the restrictive economic policies that accompanied it. In the same way as Mitterrand had fmally to abandon the reflationary policies adopted in 1981, Chirac was forced to renege on the wild economic promises of his election campaign. His denunciations, prior to the 1995 Presidential election, of La pensee unique (orthodox monetarist economic thinking) and of the constraints it imposed on economic policy, along with his affirmation that with imagination and willpower it was possible to conduct une autre politique - a different, more growth-oriented policy than the competitive disinflation of the previous twelve years - found a receptive ear among the voters and secured his election. But after he came to power there developed an awareness that governmental autonomy in economic policy making was seriously constrained.
