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A French word describes the French disease: dirigisme, the micromanaging state as source and director of society’s creativity, which for that reason is another scarcity.

The idea of national champions, built up via state dirigisme, according to classic liberal economic doctrine, ultimately ensures that economic efficiency and commercial considerations get squeezed out.

But blocking the deal for STX, along with a series of other maneuvers in recent weeks, is prompting concerns that Mr. Macron may follow the tried and true French tradition of dirigisme — an interventionist approach that his predecessors have employed time and again to promote French interests.

It was then a state-sponsored industry—an emblem of dirigisme under Park Chung-hee, a dictator who seized power in a coup in 1961 and ruled for 18 years.

For much of the 20th century, economists were open to a bit of dirigisme.