TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION

In capitalist reality as distinguished from its textbook picture, it is not that kind of competition which counts but the competition from the new commodity, the new technology, the new source of supply, the new type of organisation (the largest-scale unit of control for instance) — competition which commands a decisive cost or quality advantage and which strikes not at the margins of the profits and the outputs of the existing firms but at their foundations and their very lives (Schumpeter 1981).     

THE STATES' ROLE IN EDUCATION POLICY INNOVATION

Historically, local control of education has been a sacred part of the American political culture. Since the early 1960s. however, there has been an unprecedented growth of state influence over local education. States require minimum days of school attendance, courses of study, and standards for teacher licensing, as well as minimum tax levies and expenditures. During the 1970s, states intruded heavily into school finances, initiating reforms to equalize educational opportunities.     

INNOVATION POLICY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

This paper offers a rationale for expanding current efforts to support industrial innovation to encompass the important and unique contributions that the social sciences can make in this area. In order to provide a comprehensive overview of these contributions, the paper examines the role that social factors play in the process of technological innovations, the importance of social innovations, and the potential contributions of social science research to the diffusion of innovation as well as its importance in considering the broad social impacts of social innovations.     

GOVERNMENT STRUCTURAL POLICIES AND THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY

Structural policy has two elements: rules of competition and concentration in the marketplace, and deliberate attempts to structure industrial sectors. Historically, Europe, Japan, and the U.S. have pursued quite dissimilar structural policies, reflecting their differing perceptions of the national interest, different international imperatives, and different conceptions of the role of the state. The automobile industry offers sharp cross-country comparisons of structural policy at i t s most vigorous. In this paper, the successes and failures of U.S. antitrust activity toward the automobile industry are considered in comparison to the relative absence of such policies abroad. Similarly, governments' attempts to develop internationally competitive automobile industries in Europe and Japan contrast with the domestic regulatory orientation in the U.S. This historical analysis suggests the current need for reorientations in national structural policies in order to deal effectively with internationalized markets, firms, and competition in the automobile and other industries today.     

COMPETITION AND PERFORMANCE IN THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY

The paper examines the airline industry ten years after the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. A brief review of the historical background of regulation and the changes leading to the Airline Deregulation Act is presented. A number of studies are cited that conclude that airline perfor- mance has improved since the Civil Aeronautics Board days. The author agrees with these conclusions but goes on to suggest that it is time to begin comparing the airline industry today with the standards of performance associated with perfect competition instead of the previous regulatory period. A standard of competitive performance is suggested. The traditional p=mc=ac performance is complicated because mc and ac decline for any airline flight until the plane is full or has a 100% load factor. The author suggests p=acat load factors are not yet reaching loo%, it is suggested that some policy modifications might help improve performance further. An- titrust is examined and some other institutional policy changes are sug- gested.     

SCIENCE,THE WORKFORCE AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION*

The change in the organization of work with advancing technology thus has important implications for governments, for educational authorities and for managers and administrators in both private and public sectors of industry. Governments must strive particularly for better means of analysing the structure of the workforce and predicting changes in the need for educated and trained manpower. Educational authorities must learn to interpret information from such analyses and to obtain further Information for detailed forward planning. Managements must learn to make the most of the products of the educational systems (especially the technical and vocational educational systems) and to provide training both within the undertaking and in conjunction with technical institutions. This training (and retraining) must be provided for workers at all levels and for managers at all levels. I shall conclude with a quotation from The Revolution in Education, by M. J. Adler and M. Mayer: Democracy and mechanization of labour are here and they are here together. Whatever their shortcomings in practice they present the human race for the first time in human history with the possibility of the good life for all men and the equitable organization of human society.     

THE POLITICS OF MICROPOLICY: INNOVATION AND INDUSTRIAL POLICY IN THE UNITED STATES

The author compares the origins and prominence of efforts in the U.S. to initiate innovation policy and industrial policy. Efforts to develop innovation policy have proven t o be obscure, episodic, relatively noncontroversial, and confined to a narrow political arena. They typically resulted in short-lived spending programs. In contrast, in less than four years the industrial policy proposals introduced have been far more ambitious, generated broad interest groups support and opposition, and sparked vigorous, widely publicized controversy. These differences cannot be explained by differences in analytical difficulties or in the uncertainty of benefits derived. They derive from the failure and success of the two issues to engage politically active constituencies and from the corresponding roles of Congress and the bureaucracy.     

PUBLIC PROTEST AND PUBLIC POLICY: THE ANTI-APARTHEID MOVEMENT AND POLITICAL INNOVATION*

With the Comprehensive Anti-apartheid Act of 1986, Congress instituted economic sanctions against South Africa, thereby reversing the historic course of U. S. foreign policy. This political innovation constituted a great victory for minority interests. This article utilizes the agenda-setting literature to examine the relationship between Anti-apartheid movement activity in the United States and adoption of economic sanctions against South Africa. The analysis is based upon an events data set consisting of 1353 events appearing in the New York Times between 1960 and 1986, interviews with activists and legislators, and archived materials. The ar- ticle concludes that although the Anti-apartheid movement was only in- directly involved in moving sanctions legislation to the policy agenda, the movement exerted direct influence in the policy process once the legislation had agenda status.     

THE INDUSTRIES ASSISTANCE COMMISSION AND THE MAKING OF PRIMARY INDUSTRY POLICY

Abstract: The Industries Assistance Commission has been a new ingredient to the policymaking process for Australian primary industry. The traditional process contained a number of features — close association with the Country Party, Federal/State bargaining, a powerful Department of Primary Industry and myriad non-departmental authorities — which together led to policies which were ad hoc , complicated and often based on social rather than economic criteria. The Whitlam government, with the support of the Liberal Party, but against the opposition of the Country Party, included the examination of assistance to primary industry within the scope of the IAC. Advising on primary industry was a special challenge for the IAC. The Commission devoted considerable energies to expanding its own resources into this field and establishing working relations with other institutions working in this area. Since 1974 about a sixth of the IAC's resources have been devoted to inquiries into primary industries, though the workload has decreased in recent years. The consequence of the IAC's entry into the field has meant primarily that other actors in the process, such as State departments and industry organisations have had to supplement their own resources by the employment of professional agricultural economists to write their submissions. The style of debate has been indelibly altered. This, rather than the direct impact of the IAC's recommendations on assistance to primary industries, stands as the new institution's greatest achievement.     

ELECTRICITY PLANNING IN TASMANIA AND NEW ZEALAND: POLITICAL PROCESSES AND THE TECHNOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE

Abstract: This paper considers but rejects a thesis that there is some sort of 'technological imperative' in operation in the process of electricity planning which requires the integration of electricity generating systems with large industrial consumers. It is argued that there is nothing about the technical features of electricity generation and supply that does not translate into costs and benefits (which can be subsequently paid, enjoyed or ignored by decision-makers). Instead a Galbraithian thesis of technocracy is examined, but this is found to be insufficient to explain fully the electricity planning process in Australia and New Zealand and the relationship of that process to electricity-intensive industry. After examining cases of forecasting and planning in New Zealand and Tasmania (both predominantly reliant on intensive hydro-electric systems), it is concluded that a full appreciation requires an understanding of the relationship between government and business, a relationship which is rooted long ago in the colonial origins of both countries.