Loosening the Ties that Bind: The Impact of European Integration on French Government and its Relationship to Business

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Abstract
European integration has served to loosen the ties that have traditionally bound French business and government by decreasing the independence of French govenment, which can no longer formulate policy unilaterally, while it has increased that of French business, which now looks as much to Europe as to the nation‐state for policy‐making, and more to the market and one another than the state for financing. European integration has also reduced the flexibility of government at the implementation stage, with the EU regulatory model replacing France's administrative model. The result is an unbalancing of France's traditional ‘statist’ model of policy‐making, and potential problems for French democracy.