Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T02:40:06.101Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Promoting the Industries of the Future: The Search for an Industrial Strategy in Britain and France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Diana Green
Diana Green
Affiliation:
Hallsworth Fellow of Political Economy 1980–1University of Manchester
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article analyses and contrasts recent attempts by the governments of Britain and France to devise an industrial strategy for the next two decades, prompted by, and in a bid to come to grips with, the uncertain international economic environment. It is in three main parts. The first part comprises a brief resumé of the main features of industrial policy in the two countries over the last two decades. The next section examines the main features of the new industrial strategies being put together in each country, based on the so-called ‘industries of the future’, supplementing (rather than replacing) other forms of selective intervention. The third part discusses the problems involved in attempting to devise and launch strategies based on picking industrial ‘winners’. It suggests that if, as French experience seems to show, technocratic dictatorship is the price of success, this is a price which most industrial democracies would be unwilling to pay.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , August 1981 , pp. 333 - 351
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Blackaby, F. (ed.) (1979) De-industrialisation. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Green, D. (1980) The Budget and the Plan. In Cerny, P. G. and Schain, M. A. (eds.) French Politics and Public Policy. London: Frances Pinter.Google Scholar
Green, D. (1981) Managing Industrial Change? London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Guttman, R. P. (1979) The Evolution of Industrial Policy in the UK 1964–76. London: Thames Polytechnic (unpublished Ph.D).Google Scholar
HMSO (1975) An Approach to Industrial Strategy (Cmnd 6315). London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Ministère de l'Industrie (1979) Premiers Eléments pour une programme National d'Innovation. Paris: La Documentation Française.Google Scholar
Ministère de l'Industrie (1980) Pour une Industrie de Performance: éléments de politique industrielle. Paris: La Documentation Française.Google Scholar
Mueller, A. (1977) Industrial efficiency and UK government policy. In Bowe, C. (ed.), Industrial Efficiency and the Role of Government. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Nora, S. and Mine, A. (1978) L'Informatisation de la Société. Paris: La Documentation Française.Google Scholar
Peacock, A. et al. (1980) Structural Economic Policies in West Germany and the UK. London: Anglo-German Foundation.Google Scholar
Skidelsky, R. (1977) The decline of Keynesian politics. In Crouch, C. (ed.), State and Economy in Contemporary Capitalism. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Smith, T. (1979) The Politics of the Corporate Economy. London: Martin Robertson.Google Scholar
Stoffaes, C. (1978) La Grande Menace Industrielle. Paris: Calmann-Levy.Google Scholar
Young, S. (1974) Intervention in the Mixed Economy. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Zysman, J. (1977) Political Strategies for Industrial Order. Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar