统制主义，天降杀机？

法国政府为什么要阻止雅虎对Dailymotion的收购？法国的经济模式与英美有何不同？答案就是历史悠久的“统制主义”，它甚至可以追溯到路易十四的财政大臣柯尔贝尔。FT巴黎社长Hugh Carnegy失望地指出，今天的统制主义不仅不断气，而且还有了些新的内容。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

dirigisme|[法]政府对经济的管制和干预。二战后，法国左右政治派别都赞同，政府应在资本主义经济基础上，兴办一些国有企业（邮政铁路核电等）和通过各种经济手段进行调控和引导，以使缺乏大企业的法国经济复兴。

voluble['vɒljʊb(ə)l] adj.健谈的

La Bastille 巴黎的巴士底狱广场

PSA Peugeot Citroën 标志雪铁龙

irk[ɜːk] v.使烦恼，使厌倦

redundancy [rɪ'dʌnd(ə)nsɪ] n.冗余，裁员

hurl at 投向

megaphone['megəfəʊn] n.扩音器

blast furnace 高炉

right of first refusal 优先购买权

SNCF 法国国营铁路公司

caveat ['kæviæt] n.警告，说明

furtive ['fɜːtɪv] adj.秘密的，鬼鬼祟祟的

Inside Business: Dirigisme dies hard in France (771 words)

By Hugh Carnegy

Arnaud Montebourg could hardly have chosen a more fitting day to launch his latest public assault on one of the world’s biggest companies. The voluble French industry minister’s boast that he had blocked Yahoo from “devouring” Dailymotion, a French video website that the US group wanted to acquire, came as trade unionists were gathering at La Bastille for their annual May Day parade.

By preserving Dailymotion for the nation, the socialist minister may be attempting to save some face with French workers after his failure to stop the closure of an ArcelorMittal steel furnace at Florange in the north of the country. But the startling implication is that France has added dotcom companies to the list of those to be shielded from foreign takeover. This raises the question of exactly what President François Hollande’s policy is on state ownership and control of companies.

Mr Montebourg, whose spat with Yahoo followed very public clashes with Maurice Taylor, head of US tyremaker Titan International, and the owners of carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroën, irks French business leaders as much as foreign counterparts.

The man in charge of the “Say Oui to France” inward investment campaign is clearly doing little for France’s image with investors. His move against Yahoo followed a week in which Mr Hollande had made overtures to Chinese investors and entrepreneurs at home to show that the country was open for business.

While that message has now been made much less audible, the government has adopted a more pragmatic approach than Mr Montebourg’s megaphone suggests.

Last week, the Florange blast furnaces finally went cold despite the industry minister’s threats of nationalisation and a stream of insults hurled at owner Lakshmi Mittal. The cash-strapped government accepted that a promise by ArcelorMittal to avoid compulsory redundancies and reinvest in the rest of the site was the best that could be achieved. PSA’s big plant closure and redundancy plan now has government backing.

Since the Florange affair, the word nationalisation has scarcely issued from ministers’ lips. In fact, in the past month, the government has raised more than €1.5bn by selling a slice of its stakes in Safran, the aircraft engine maker, and EADS, maker of Airbus airliners.

Furthermore, Mr Montebourg himself signalled in a recent newspaper interview that the government was willing to sell down other state shareholdings. However, this week he rowed back from a suggestion that Paris may sell part of its 85 per cent holding in EDF, the big nuclear power and electricity provider.

There is certainly plenty of scope for privatisations, given the €60bn of state shareholdings in quoted companies, including GDF Suez, the utility; Thales, the defence contractor; Air France-KLM; Renault, the carmaker; Areva, the nuclear power group; and France Telecom. Then there are its 100 per cent holdings in big operations such as the post office and the SNCF railway operator.

But while officials say there are “no taboos” about selling some shareholdings, there are important caveats. We are not talking here of a Thatcherite privatisation programme – even a furtive one.

The government is firmly committed to retaining its influence in defence, energy and transport. The EADS sale, for example, was in the context of a revamped corporate governance deal that left France with a core 12 per cent stake in the company. The state recently negotiated a right of first refusal on EADS’ 46 per cent stake in Dassault Aviation, in case EADS wants to sell out. In addition, Paris still holds a 27 per cent stake in Safran.

As Dailymotion shows, the government is also set on playing a pivotal role in new technology businesses deemed vital to the country’s industrial future – as was its centre-right predecessor.

The French rival to YouTube, founded by two entrepreneurs eight years ago, received €7.5m in funding from FSI (Fonds Stratégique d'Investissement, a state-owned investment agency), the state’s strategic investment agency, in 2009 before it was taken over by France Telecom two years later and before the socialist government came to power last year.

Some €450m raised from the Safran sale has gone into the new Public Investment Bank, which absorbed the FSI and is charged with buying stakes in developing companies, especially in technology.

Under pressure from rising unemployment and stalled growth, the government has shown some flexibility. But this will not be at the price of yielding control over industries regarded as being of national importance – which can be a pretty wide definition.

As Mr Montebourg has amply illustrated in the case of Dailymotion, dirigisme dies hard in France.

Hugh Carnegy is the Financial Times’ Paris bureau chief

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which of the following is not "dirigiste"?

A. Industrty minister Arnaud Montebourg blocked Yahoo's Dailymotion acquisition.

B. Industrty minister Arnaud Montebourg threatened to nationalize ArcelorMittal's factory.

C. Former president Jacques Chirac denounced UK/US economic policy as "Anglo-Saxon ultraliberalism".

D. Former president Nocolas Sarkozy lowered taxes and raised retirement age from 60 to 62.

答案(1)

2.After disputes with business leaders, the socialist government finally reconciliated with whom?

A. Peugeot Citroën.

B. Yahoo.

C. EADS(parent firm of Airbus).

D. Titan International(tyremaker).

答案(2)

3.French government would like to control what kind of industries?

A. Those who are "too big to fail".

B. Those too big for private sector to invest in.

C. Those seen as being of national importance.

D. Those with long investment payoff period.

答案(3)

4.Is there something new about today's French dirigisme?

A. Nothing new.

B. The government also wants to play a pivotal role in new technology businesses.

C. The government plans to reduce its shareholdings in state-owned enterprises.

D. The government is hostile only to foreign capital.

答案(4)

* * *

(1) 答案：D.Former president Nocolas Sarkozy lowered taxes and raised retirement age from 60 to 62.

解释：ABC都是管制主义的政策或姿态。 戴高乐、蓬皮杜、希拉克等右翼总统也都是管制主义的奉行者，法国的私有化远没有英美撒切尔-里根革命那种大规模。这两种经济模式的支持者没少互相吐槽。

(2) 答案：A.Peugeot Citroën.

解释：政府最后与米塔尔和解，并支持了标致雪铁龙的关厂减产计划。

本文中出现了一堆一堆的陌生的公司名称，不需要费时去细读，你只需要知道它们是哪一类的。GDF Suez, the utility; Thales, the defence contractor...看到前面的state shareholdings in quoted companies, including 就可以知道这些“都是国有控股公司”，就可以了。如果问题中问到了细节，再回来找是很快的。

(3) 答案：C.Those seen as being of national importance.

解释：A是英美政府的理念，在金融危机后，作为权宜之计，被迫收购了一些银行和汽车公司，但它们不会长期持有，随着经济好转，这些股份将被全额出售。 法国政府长期控制一些行业，是认为它们具有战略重要性。至于B理由是不成立的，世界上市值最大的公司苹果就是私企。D理由其实也不成立，亚马逊在上市后连亏9年投资者还在不断注资。

(4) 答案：B.The government also wants to play a pivotal role in new technology businesses.

解释：Dailymotion并购案显示了法国政府也想在新科技领域插手，不仅是传统的铁路核电邮政等行业了，France has added dotcom companies to the list.文中提到，政府的策略是，用卖航空制造商Safran赛峰集团股份的钱，注资国有投资公司，然后用来收购高科技公司。