Descamps, Florence <br/><br/>
French finance technocrats and the 1983 austerity turn 

 -  2018.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> Between 1981 and 1983, senior officials at the French Ministry of Finance gradually regained their footing as well as their credibility with the Socialist government, which had initially favoured a social political agenda as well as a Keynesian stimulus package. With the advent of the financial crisis in 1982-1983, which led President Mitterrand to choose to stay within the European monetary system and therefore correct the country’s economic policy, French finance ministers launched a public finance restructuring plan and a number of anti-inflation policies. It remains to be seen whether or not this turning point was a true conversion to neo-liberalism.