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In May 1981, I watched on with fascination from a former French colony, Ivory Coast, as France elected François Mitterrand as president, seeming to give the country’s Socialist Party a mandate to break with the constraints of liberal capitalism and remake the economy along more generous and equitable lines.

Fresh out of school and fired up by idealism, I was cheered by the premise behind the Socialists’ agenda for change: that a rich Western country could afford to reject capitalist orthodoxy and boldly reimagine its social and economic compact. In its first months in office, Mitterrand’s team raised wages, lowered the retirement age, shortened the workweek, and extended vacations, among other reforms. To make this work, the government took control of banks and nationalized some of France’s leading industrial companies.

In May 1981, I watched on with fascination from a former French colony, Ivory Coast, as France elected François Mitterrand as president, seeming to give the country’s Socialist Party a mandate to break with the constraints of liberal capitalism and remake the economy along more generous and equitable lines.

Fresh out of school and fired up by idealism, I was cheered by the premise behind the Socialists’ agenda for change: that a rich Western country could afford to reject capitalist orthodoxy and boldly reimagine its social and economic compact. In its first months in office, Mitterrand’s team raised wages, lowered the retirement age, shortened the workweek, and extended vacations, among other reforms. To make this work, the government took control of banks and nationalized some of France’s leading industrial companies.

Yet this moment of stirring can-do by the state gave way, just a year later, to an abrupt U-turn. In July 1982, Mitterrand........

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