Contenu du sommaire : L'avenir de l'État dans une Économie de marché

Institutional Framework of the Market Economy. The rapid development of international trade since the 1950s has led gradually to an expansion of the market economy and a redefinition of the role of State. We are, thus, witnessing a concurrent reduction in direct State action on the economy and the granting of a larger role to the State in implementing the structural adjustments required for economic change. Meanwhile, State is influenced by market economy. Current action and thought tend to submit public authorities to market constraints (privatization, managerial approach to government responsibility).

Compensating for a Structural Resource Deficit in Senegal. Senegal requires approximately 200 billion CFA francs annually. Today, the country cannot count solely on the State but must encourage direct private investment. To this end, the government of Senegal has implemented an investment code and undertaken to simplify its legislation.

From Revenue-Based Economy to Production-Based Economy. A Strategy for State ? The difficulties faced by private investment in Africa are compounded by the fact that, since the colonial period, the economy has been basically a revenue distribution economy. It must be completely overhauled and an economy based on production of manufactured goods or the processing of basic agricultural products must be created. To move towards this market economy, Africa must pass through a number of difficult stages.

Promoting the Private Sector in Developing Countries : Towards Changing State Policies and Behavior. Everyone agrees that State must play an active role in initiating policies for promoting the private sector. Rather than special measures for encouraging this, the private sector requires a stable and auspicious political environment. This means that State must reorientate its intervention and establish a new type of relation with the private sector.

Indonesia : The Continuing Growth of Foreign and Domestic Investments. Over the last five years, foreign investment has become a decisive factor in the Indonesian government's industrial development policy. In order to encourage investments, a large movement towards deregulation and debureaucratization has been undertaken in the monetary and infrastructural sectors.

Stabilisation, Internationalization and Deregulation in Mexico : Three Ways of Promoting Investment. The impact of the 1982 oil crisis was devastating for the Mexican economy. As a consequence, an adjustment program has been implemented. It can be analyzed under three lines. These are stabilizing domestic conditions as a means of improving the quality of life and reinforcing the economic bases, internationalizing trade as a means for stimulating market development and competition, and deregulating as a means for creating an environment favorable to investment and growth.

The Transition to the Market Depends on State. The nature of State has undergone a profound change in many countries of central and Eastern Europe since 1989. Since this time, the importance of the private sector is not simply considered in terms of efficiency and profitability, but also as an economical basis for democracy.

Benin : Strengthening State Credibility. Programs for State modernization should take impetus from a deep need for redefining development policies, behavior and priorities. In this context, a certain number of legislative and legal measures have been taken in Benin to institute a free market economy.

Brazil : Modernizing Public Management. As the Brazilian government's modernization program is currently understood, economic reorganization, necessary for leading the country towards socio-economic development, is based on the principle of private initiative. This requires that the Brazilian government undertake two urgent measures : the transformation of the production capacities on one hand, and the use of alternative financing instruments for social welfare on the other.

Hungary : Restructuring The Value System. We cannot speak of a modernization program in the case of Hungary because we are dealing with a new type of government. It is a permanent program because the establishment of new institutions implies a long process.

France : A Continual Process Relayed by a Political Project. The revival of the public service consists in affirming the role of State as a guarantor of republican values, an agent of economic life, and an actor in social cohesion. It is, thus, a process, political in its objective, which tends to extend beyond the traditional dilemma of ‘more' or ‘less' State in France, and to affirm the need for a ‘better' State. This means a government more respectful of civil society, closer to citizens and more efficient.

Contracts as Means for Modernization. Management agreements as elements of reponsabilization are very essential tools for modernization. This should become a general formula not only throughout all public enterprises but in all State regalian services.

Turning Points for State. There should be no illusions as to the new image of an efficient and inexpensive State. If State must be better managed, it cannot be reduced to a management problem (even if it shows itself to be seriously handicapped in this area in relation to other organizations). Behind the word ‘state', we should differentiate between four different constructs in the state-society relation : the regalian state, the State as social institutor, the welfare state, and the state as economic regulator. Certain notions, such as the proprietary state, the ‘super-manager' state and the omniscient state, are being phased out in the East and West. It should be noted that the basic regulatory functions will survive these upheavals. Thus state as economic manager will disappear, making way for the traditional political state.

The Lessons of British Privatization or the Dilemmas of Liberal State. Four main strategies have been mobilized by the Conservatives to reduce and define the role of the State in the economy : greater autonomy, deregulation, marketisation, and privatization. This global policy to redefine the boundary between State and market conceals some contradictions. The British State has certainly altered its relations with the market economy, but in a very complex fashion : withdrawal and distancing in some sectors, more indirect interventionism in a few sectors, and more thorough in others.

Does State Have a Future in a Society Which Holds It Suspect ? In ‘undoing' State, the American nation has deprived the central government of the power to act. The incapacity of the federal authorities to resolve problems has resulted in substantial reactions of rejection of the political System. This implies avoiding, in France and elsewhere, the decline of the community spirit.

State : Guarantor of the Market Economy. There is a large consensus in the need to reorientate the public sector and to improve its quality. To analyze and to determine what should be done with regard to the real underlying causes of the lack of progress in the matter, we must go deeper into the ‘micro-perspective' as far as the functions fulfilled, the requisite qualifications and the objectives carried out, are involved. In this area, progress will come through specific improvements.

Modernizing State : the Main Part Is to Be Done. In France, a notion of State has been brought to perfection and this perfection is today faced with a situation that is in deep upheaval, due to international economic competition within a free market economy, and more generally the development of society. State must somehow reintegrate with society but, at the same time, affirm the particularity of its functions and define itself as a cog in a System which extends beyond.

A Double Principle of Subsidiarity. Even if State in France must be renovated and must restore equilibrium in some areas, we cannot really speak in terms of crisis. In addition to certain functions of sovereignty, State is also a long-term depositary, including in terms of social and economic development. State can only survive under suspicious conditions and impose its image on its citizens through a permanent effort at adaptation.

A Future to Be Invented. The future of State largely remains to be invented and to invent this future there are a certain number of deficiencies to be filled. Industry or company strategies should not be managed by the State, but in its own area, State has strategies to carry out, in particular in terms of education, research and solidarity.