The Groupe X-Crise was a French

History of France

The history of France goes back to the arrival of the earliest human being in what is now France. Members of the genus Homo entered the area hundreds of thousands years ago, while the first modern Homo sapiens, the Cro-Magnons, arrived around 40,000 years ago...

 technocratic

Technocracy (bureaucratic)

Technocracy is a form of government where technical experts are in control of decision making in their respective fields. Economists, engineers, scientists, health professionals, and those who have knowledge, expertise or skills would compose the governing body...

 movement created in 1931 as an aftermath of the 1929 Wall Street stock market crash

Wall Street Crash of 1929

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...

 and the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

. Formed by former students of the École Polytechnique

École Polytechnique

The École Polytechnique is a state-run institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, Essonne, France, near Paris. Polytechnique is renowned for its four year undergraduate/graduate Master's program...

 (nicknamed "X"), it advocated planisme

Planisme

Planisme was an ideological current in the interwar period which advocated the use of economic plans and planification. Représentants of planisme include, in France, the groupe X-crise, and in Belgium Henri de Man...

, or economic planification, as opposed to the then dominant ideology of classical liberalism

Classical liberalism

Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets....

 which they held to have failed. Their ideas would not be put into practice until the Vichy era

Vichy France

Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...

, when many technocrats seized the opportunity to reconstruct France. However, many members of the group joined the Resistance

French Resistance

The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...

 and opposed the Vichy regime, ultimately participating in the post-war administration. X-Crise was founded by Gérard Bardet and André Loizillon, and its members included Raymond Abellio

Raymond Abellio

Raymond Abellio is the pseudonym of French writer Georges Soulès. He was born November 11, 1907 in Toulouse, and died August 26, 1986 in Nice.Abellio went to the Ecole Polytechnique and then took part in the X-Crise Group...

, Louis Vallon, Jean Coutrot, Jules Moch

Jules Moch

Jules Salvador Moch was a French politician.-Biography:...

 and Alfred Sauvy

Alfred Sauvy

Alfred Sauvy was a demographer, anthropologist and historian of the French economy. Sauvy coined the term Third World in reference to countries that were unaligned with either the Communist Soviet bloc or the Capitalist NATO bloc during the Cold War...

, who as head of the INED demographic institute after World War II coined the term "Third World

Third World

The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...

".