The rise and fall of neoliberalism: Evidences from an ecological and regulationist analysis of France (1960–2020)
本文通过整合能源流与调节理论，分析1960-2020年法国能源对资本主义发展模式的影响，发现能源支出比重是维持利润率的关键，新自由主义虽缓解了福特主义的代谢枯竭，但自身也因能源管理失衡陷入结构性危机。
This article explores the critical role of energy in shaping capitalist modes of development, and their entry into crisis, in France between 1960 and 2020. This analysis challenges traditional views that regard energy primarily as an exogenous shock and instead posits energy as a fundamental metabolic constraint in capitalist accumulation regimes. To demonstrate this, we integrate energy flows into the analysis of capitalists' regimes by crossing two bodies of knowledge: ecological economics and regulation theory. We enrich regulation theory with three key ecological macroeconomics indicators: thermodynamic efficiency , exosomatic metabolic rate and the weight of energy expenditures. Using descriptive statistics , we show that the weight of energy expenditures is the most significant variable: it must be contained if the rate of profit is to be maintained and if capital accumulation is to continue. Neoliberalism responded to the metabolic exhaustion of Fordism but eventually encountered its own limits in managing energy constraints. Neoliberal recipes for reconfiguring the metabolism have generated major imbalances likely to call into question the reproduction of this regime (financial crises, trade imbalances). We conclude that neoliberalism's structural crisis is rooted in the exhaustion of past energy management strategies, opening the door to the emergence of post-liberal capitalism.