Le temps présent : la crise (I). D'une analyse historique à une vue prospective

The Present : the Crisis (I). From a Historical Analysis to an Outlook for the Future This article begins by examining the concepts and methods that can be used to analyze the present crisis in a long-term historical perspective. Concepts discussed here include the accumulation system, institutional structures, and regulation. The crucial question then arises : can the present stagflation be cured within existing structures (in which case we are dealing with "minor crisis")? Or, on the contrary, does the reorganization of these very structures represent the challenge of the 1980's ? Current difficulties are interpreted here as the result of the postwar mode of development having reached its limits. Thus the crisis cannot be solved by restoring this mode. Quite to the contrary, the remedy to a "major crisis" presupposes a total change in the patterns of state intervention, particularly as regards the interplay of modes of public organization and market forces. As for technology, whatever its importance in long-term development, it cannot act as the deus ex machina that it is all too often expected to be. The effects of current technological change will therefore be largely contingent on the institutional structures and regulatory mechanisms that will eventually emerge from the crisis.Mistral Jacques, Boyer Robert. Le temps présent : la crise (I). D'une analyse historique à une vue prospective. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 38ᵉ année, N. 3, 1983. pp. 483-506