A short history of French spirit of enterprise (from 1780 till date) (In French)

Pessimistic views among French economist, political and scholar opinion givers have often prevailed about the assessment of French economic competitiveness ; that might be explained by negative surveys of the ability of economic elites to adapt themselves to the changes of the environment of competition and of the productive and technological systems. Breakdowns of enterprise spirit could thus explain that periods of sluggishness be imposed to French growth and, globally, that backwardness had been endured when factors of progress were at stake. Our text reconstitutes the overall issues and, then, proceeds, alongside chronological periods, to a large scrutinizing of the validity of these assertions, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.