Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

by Tony Judt

The Monnet Plan was unique. It was the work of an unusual man.2 But above all it was the product of a political culture already favourably disposed to authoritarian decision-making and consensus building by governmental fiat. Under its auspices France became the first western country to commit itself wholeheartedly to economic growth and modernization as public policy. The Plan depended heavily on assumptions about French access to German raw materials and markets, and thus the story of its success is part of the narrative of France’s relations with Germany and the rest of Europe in the post-war decade: a story of many false starts, constraints and frustrations. The first Monnet Plan was largely an emergency measure to address France’s post-war crisis. Only later was it extended and adapted to the terms of Marshall Aid. But the basic outline of post-war French economic strategy was present from the start. French planning was never more than ‘indicative’: it only ever set targets, not production quotas. In this respect it was quite unlike Soviet planning, whose characteristic feature