Dirigisme

Dirigisme, also directed economy, referred to government intervention in the market to set the co-ordination of individual economic plans by the market competition partially or completely suspended. An extreme form of statism is the centrally planned economy.

Objectives interventionist policy in market economies can be, for example:

• Protection of certain economic activities
• Protect the supply from domestic production
• Combat hyperinflation

Examples of dirigiste economic policy:

• Wage and price freeze
• Statutory minimum wages
• Quantity forcing on the production
• Trade restrictions (eg quotas )
• Foreign exchange controls
• Investment control
• Bureaucratic rules.

Dirigiste measures often require further intervention by the state, if private agents try to circumvent rules, etc..