The Origins of the Interventionist State in France, 1830–1870

Bibliographic Data

ID9738491
AuthorsJerome Greenfield (0000-0002-9929-7857, King's College London, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume135
Issue573
Pages386-416
Publication date2020-07-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe English Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-8266 • E-ISSN: 1477-4534
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ehr/ceaa130
OpenAlexW3036510341
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited4

The historiography of the French state’s economic interventionism has focused primarily on the Ancien Régime and the period from the 1850s into the twentieth century. This article argues that, though often overlooked, the French state embarked on a major expansion in the 1830s and 1840s, as government spending on public works grew sharply. Most notably, the government contributed to the financing of railways and urban improvements. Following the 1848 revolution, rising pressure for fiscal rectitude forced a reconfiguration of the interventionist Orleanist state. While the new Bonapartist regime remained committed to public works, it relied more heavily on private finance than its predecessor, benefiting from the ‘great boom’ of the 1850s. Still, private enterprise remained inadequate to sustain public works without the support of public money, particularly once economic expansion began to slow in the 1860s. As a result, government spending on public works continued to rise under the Bonapartists. In this respect, they sustained the conception of an interventionist state developed by the Orleanists

Boom · Economic history · Economic policy · Economics · Economy · Government (linguistics · Historiography · Mill · Political economy · Political science · Public finance · State (computer science · European Political History Analysis · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law

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