The purposeful state: Rise of postwar technocratic governance in Germany and France

Diplôme Thèse The purposeful state: Rise of postwar technocratic governance in Germany and France eng 2020-05-08 author Godard François 810772 director Pontusson Harry Jonas 0000-0001-8550-9022 730283 10.13097/archive-ouverte/unige:141068 urn:nbn:ch:unige-1410681 SdS 145 The political economy that emerged in Europe from the second world war was successful to an extent that remains underappreciated. At a ten-year interval Germany and France went through intense episodes of institutional and policy renewal. State capacity was lifted by rebalancing power away from parliament towards the executive branch, consolidated by majoritarian political systems. Government legitimacy was enhanced by associating expertise to democracy. Thanks to ideational leadership, social groups' expectations were refashioned and made compatible to low inflation, export-driven growth programmes. This new ‘purposeful state', profoundly different from the earlier liberal version, provided the underlying momentum of the European unification and a regulatory state steered by equalitarian productivism. Productivity eventually matched America's, with more equal outcomes. Applied to Britain and Italy, the model provides key insights on their underperformance. This convergence of democracy and productivity disrupts the corporatist political science consensus on the postwar – where change is unexplained – by upgrading the role of ideas and pluralist state agency. Dewey 320 121 Département de science politique et relations internationales T3 false 37fc5955-4070-4e28-af78-16a4af8a1dc6 Thesis Restricted ThepurposefulstateV8.pdf 2665931 application/pdf cc605ed907e4e4566fe4296be4573fb3afe58b9e0bded40c3b7afb0c4e2b9536 restrictedAccess Faculté des sciences de la société / Département de science politique et relations internationales

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Godard, François