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(Translated from French by Simon Lee.) Reflects on the limits of the correspondence between pure-market capitalism & efficiency, illustrating with the case of France. The US model of capitalism is often interpreted as the closest approximation of pure-market relations, while the French model of capitalism is described a strong institutional model. It is shown that, in both cases, there is a balance between cooperation & competition difficult to achieve. Moreover, neither country has been able to sustain this balance, resulting in considerable economic inefficiency. The recent move toward globalizing pure-market relations is taken to be a considerable threat to social cohesion. Moreover, this process has rendered impotent all efforts to address the negative effects of economic modernization in terms of social policies. To address the dire repercussions of this economic transformation, it is suggested that Western societies must relinquish the myth of continual economic progress. This might allow these societies to recognize that what is seen as progress also has negative consequences, & that progress comes in many forms. D. Ryfe

The aim of the paper is to confront two models of the French pattern of action: the well-known 'bureaucratic' model, depicted by Michel Crozier, and a model which emphasizes the persistence within modern French organizations of what Montesquieu called the honour principle. This model is tested successfully against the ethnographical material presented in The Bureaucratic Phenomenon. In addi tion, the paper explains, using a semiotic approach to culture, how a mode of functioning said to be archaic can persist in the long run.