A constructivist and institutionalist political economy perspective on ideational, political and institutional changes in France

When examining ideational change, the constructivist approach to institutional change within political economy focuses primarily on economic policy ideas. Yet the reflexive potential of this approach could be further enhanced by paying greater attention to the ideas a community holds about itself - that is, to how national communities, as social constructs, are reconstructed by their members. By drawing on political anthropology and the constructivist approach to international relations, this dissertation conceptualises the narratives about the community’s nature of the collective and purpose as the ‘imaginary’ foundations of the community. The theoretical contribution of this dissertation is made by analysing how three ideational factors that are constitutive of such ‘imaginary’ foundations can initiate and shape institutional changes, with a focus on the reconfiguration of industrial policy. This dissertation also analyses how new social significations influence organisational changes. It is argued that the reconstruction of administrative units is required when new objectives and new policy ideas are adopted by the elite through the political process. This reconstruction is required to ensure congruence (i) between new objectives and the organisational goals of administrative units and (ii) between new policy ideas and the role system of administrative units in which such policy ideas are embedded. Chapter 1 introduces the dissertation, outlining its purpose, the rationale for selecting France, the time periods and case studies examined, its structure and its methodological approach. Chapter 2 critically reviews the relevant literature in political economy, while also drawing on political anthropology and the constructivist approach to international relations to highlight how communities reformulate the narratives about the nature and purpose of their collective, on the one hand, and how such reformulation shapes institutional change, on the other hand. Chapter 3 presents the theoretical contributions of the dissertation. Chapter 4 reviews the literature on the evolution of French industrial policy since the Gaullist period. This dissertation examines how new social significations influenced the reconfiguration of industrial policy in France since the 1950s. Specifically, the study focuses on two distinct critical junctures: the presidencies of Charles de Gaulle (1959-69; Chapters 5 and 6) and the presidency of François Hollande (2012-17; Chapter 7). Two theoretical insights developed in this dissertation are employed to address gaps in the literature on French industrial policy. Firstly, the reconstruction of the ‘imaginary’ foundations of the national community can initiate and shape institutional and organisational changes (our first theoretical proposition). The institutional dimension of the reconfiguration of French industrial policy during the Gaullist period is addressed in Chapter 5, while its organisational dimension i.e. the reconstruction of the state’s administrative units in which industrial policy was embodied, is examined in Chapter 6. Secondly, to be perceived as legitimate, an institutional change may require the prior reconstruction of the ‘imaginary’ foundations of the national community (our second theoretical proposition). Chapter 5 examines how divergences in the imaginary foundations of French and German communities hindered common industrial policymaking between the two countries. Chapter 7 analyses how ideas about the nature of the collective held by President Hollande, and one of his main economc advisers, Emmanuel Macron, hampered the reconfiguration of industrial policy envisioned by the Minister of Industrial Recovery, Arnaud Montebourg. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates that the reconstruction of the imaginary foundations of the national community may serve as an enabler of, or a prerequisite for, institutional and organisational changes. This contribution helps us to reveal a wide landscape of possibilities for institutional transformation and, by extension, for political, economic, and social changes.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• De Rivas, Clement

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Chang, Ha-Joon

• constructivist approach to political economy
• industrial policy
• institutional change

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/50c45676-3100-4d0a-825e-38bc708fe3ca/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.129497

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/401903