Governments, Markets, and Growth [antikvár]

PrefaceThe economic performance of all the advanced countries deteriorated during the 1970s, in many cases quite abruptly. This deterioration has provoked throughout the West a new debate about the proper role of government in the economy. Since solutions always depend on how one perceives a problem, it is not surprising that the sharply different explanations of our current troubles have produced sharply different prescriptions for resolving them.This book offers an interpretation of contemporary economic difficulties and of the policy debate they have engendered in the advanced countries. It discusses why it has become harder to manage the thousands of micro-changes in production and products which are necessary for economic growth and why attempts to make such changes are met with growing political resistance. The boo_k's_general arguments are based on an analysis of the efforts of the governments of the larger advancecTcountriesthe United States, Great Britain, France, West Germany, andjapanto respond to shifting economic__conditions in the years" since the Second World War. The discussion focuses on the capacities of the various governments to intervene selectively to shape industrial outcomes and attempts to account for national differences in these capacities and in the strategies adopted. The book argues that there have been three distinct technical-political solutions to the problems of growth: state-led, market-led, and negotiated.One element of the explanation of the differences in government capacities for industrial leadership is distinct to this book. I contend that an examination of national financial structures can illuminate both government economic strategies and the political conflicts that accompany industrial change. The particular arrangements of national financial7