The Six Forces of State Interventionism and the Spiral of Interventionism: Evidence from France’s COVID-19 Response

This article proposes The Forces of State Interventionism, a systematic framework inspired by Ludwig von Mises to assess the consequences of government interference in markets. While the COVID-19 pandemic reignited global debates about state intervention, the French response stands out as a paradigmatic case of accelerated interventionism, what I would call a spiral of interventionism. Despite the widespread use of analytical tools such as SWOT, PESTEL, or Porter’s Five Forces in business and public policy, no structured model grounded in Austrian economics has been developed to evaluate interventionist dynamics. Building on Mises’s Interventionism: An Economic Analysis (1998), this article categorizes state interference into six forces: (1) Restrictions, (2) Price Controls, (3) Inflation and Credit Expansion, (4) Confiscation and Subsidies, (5) Corporatism and Syndicalism, and (6) War Economy. We apply this framework to the French COVID-19 response (2020-2022) to illustrate how these forces jointly contributed to lasting distortions, rent-seeking, and social unrest. Beyond the case study, the model offers a versatile, pedagogical tool for teaching, policy evaluation, and comparative analysis of interventionist dynamics. It bridges Austrian insights with contemporary policy challenges, inviting further empirical applications and theoretical refinements.