Industrial Policy and the States

The emergence of industrial policy proposals on the nationalscene raises the prospect of a greater role for the states inAmerican economic policy. Four types of industrial policy proposalsare described, each representing a distinctive strategic orientation.After describing the implied role of states in each type, weargue that state involvement is politically necessary if anyproposal is to succeed in the national policymaking arena. Weassess the four strategic proposals in light of that contentionand conclude that two of the approaches—infrastructureinvestment and subnational jurisdiction proposals—havean advantage over the better known trade policy and sectoraltargeting strategies.     

LONG TERM CARE REGULATION IN THE STATES: A SYSTEMIC PERSPECTIVE

In recent years there has been growing interest in differing state roles in the regulation of the health care industry. Most of this attention has stressed the impact of regulatory policy with only superficial attention directed towards understanding the extent to which states can be counted on to act effectively in the area of health care regulation. Using the regulation of nursing homes as a focus, this study evaluates a variety of sociocultural, political, and economic conditions for their impact on the development of various regulatory policies. The findings suggest that the development of certificate of need legislation and reimbursement controls were not related to significant changes ir, states' budgets for Medicaid services or in bed/population ratios. Instead, regulatory efforts were more closely linked to the sociopolitical environments surrounding the policy arena. While these factors provide some indication of the potential for strong state action in the regulatory arena, ultimately the use of state regulatory policies will depend quite centrally on the innovative tendencies of the state, its organizational capacity for addressing policy issues, and the nature and extent of interest group politics.     

Geoffrey Vickers and lessons from the Ministry of Economic Warfare for cold war defence intelligence

Abstract

Geoffrey Vickers is the forgotten man of British intelligence. As the UK’s economic intelligence supremo at the Ministry of Economic Warfare and the Foreign Office between 1941 and 1945, Vickers transformed the craft of economic intelligence in both strategic and operational spheres. In the policy arena he was the driving force behind the economic and industrial planning of civil administration of liberated Europe. Vickers was also an intelligence theorist of the first rank whose legacy survived in his holistic conception of economic intelligence, its centrality to decision-making in peace and war, and the scope and evolution of the Joint Intelligence Bureau and defence intelligence.     

Globalization,state, and innovation: An appraisal of networked industrial policy

One of the most pressing questions in comparative social science is whether, and to what extent, the rapid advance of globalization has negatively affected states’ capacity to initiate successful economic and social policies. This paper puts forward the notion that states continue to be relevant because they have the potential to build and sustain networks of production and learning, which are sorely needed in the current era of globalization when productive arrangements are dominated by decentralized production networks. The paper argues that government efforts aimed at building and sustaining such networks, labeled as “networked industrial policy,” have become predominant. The study features a series of fixed‐effects time series cross‐section (TSCS) regressions linking innovation performance to several networked industrial policies in 17 countries from western and central Europe. The study finds that several of the policies have a robust effect on innovation performance and technology competitiveness, even after controls are included. These findings constitute considerable support for the notion of networked industrial policy. However, the results of the present study must be treated less as a definitive answer to the research question and more as a first step in an ongoing research process.     

Watching the Race: Where You Sit Affects What You See

States do seem to compete in making welfare policy. This competition,however, does not drive states inexorably toward a race to thebottom. Instead, this competition is a political rivalry ofthe kind that leads to unpredictable and unstable outcomes.This rivalry entails interstate learning and results in adaptation,but it stems from its political utility in appealing to votersand gaining personal recognition in the political arena     

Projecting the Arena of Inclusion: The Case of South Korea in Pursuing a Phased Inclusive Growth Process

South Korea created a mechanism that fuels inclusive growth, a process that coevolves economic growth and social well‐being. This study attempts to elaborate on the context and preconditions for development that would manifest salience policy implications for moving up the industrial value chain and attain inclusive growth. We contend against the view of simplified growth cum equity that is used to elucidate the success of Korea's socioeconomic development (economic miracles). Our findings informed us that there were intense measures taken throughout different phases of Korea's industrial development. In addition, we observed in many occasions intense negotiations between the state, firms, and civil society for social welfare and a better working environment. This led to a pursuit for inclusive growth in the post catching‐up phase that blended together many inclusive agendas, realizing growth that coevolved industrial upgrading and social welfare. This article seeks to explain how Korea populated its arena of inclusion in the process of pursuing rapid industrialization. The overview of different phases of development provides normative principles that are useful as a guide for other economies which aspire to attain similar development.     

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.     

Targeting in Economic Development: Comparative State Perspectives

This article examines recent efforts to target state industrialpolicy along three dimensions: sectoral aid to specific businessesor economic activities, geographic aid to growing or decliningregions, and direct assistance to the unemployed. While thestates have done better with sec-toral targeting than opponentsof a federal industrial policy have feared, industrial policymust compete with many other state programs, including moretraditional economic development efforts based on advertisingand tax expenditures. Only a few states have managed to channelmuch state aid to displaced workers or distressed communities.Despite some evidence as to the success of industrial policyfocused on limited areas or activities, dilution of policy focusand underinvestment of resources characterize state industrialpolicy efforts to date.     

Public choice theory and petroleum policies in Canada, Britain and Norway

Abstract. It is assumed that the development of an economically promising resource such as petroleum would be amenable to analysis from an economic viewpoint, and that government initiatives in this area might reveal the essential economic interests of the state. If governments are assumed to have similar economic and political objectives (i.e., to attain the greatest revenues possible from the exploitation of a depleting natural resource and to maintain public office), then it is to be expected that the petroleum policy outputs in various states would likewise be similar. Such differences as do exist should be amenable to explanation by examining the differences in the political constraints and economic situations of the states in question. The study models petroleum policy in four areas: state participation, pricing, depletion (including exploration and production policies), and fiscal arrangements, based on assumptions central to public choice theory. A comparison of policy outputs in the three case states illustrates the usefulness of the public choice approach to comparative policy analysis.     

Agenda-Building and Big Science

This paper extends concepts about agenda-building politics within the policy literature by considering the implications of `big science' agenda-building politics for policyrnaking. It argues that agenda-building in the `big science' policy arena is distinct from agenda-building in the general social problem-solving policy arena. The general policy development process and the `big science' policy development process are contrasted conceptually. Two different cases of agenda-building in big science are then highlighted to offer empirical evidence of the differences between the two processes. A distinction is drawn between the contemporary conceptualization of agenda-building in the general policy arena and the big science policy arena and comments are made about the value of the paper for policy learning. Accordingly, the paper has important implications for the science policy arena and perhaps the larger policy arena.     

Blurring or Shifting of Policy Frames?: Institutionalization of the Economic-Environmental Policy Linkage in the European Community

This article investigates how "policy frames" have shaped the way European Community actors perceive the policy linkage between market integration and environmental policy. The article contends that there are three Community policy frames: conditional, classic, and sustainability. They form alternative "packages" of policy ideas defining the relationship between economic and environmental policy. The article provides an analysis of how actors embed these frames in the Community's institutional framework.To illustrate the general impact of policy frames on the environmental arena, the article explores two cases: waste management policy, and the integration of environmental concerns into the Community's agricultural policy. The article concludes by highlighting the different factors that promote and undermine the formation of "thick" institutional structures likely to integrate environmental and economic policy objectives.     

Institutional innovation,development and environmental management: An ‘administrative trap’ revisited. Part II

The first part of this article [vol 9, no. 1] examined the ways in which the structure and division of responsibilities within public administrations often rendered them unable to perceive or cope with broad problems of environmental decline. In the developing world this is compounded by the contradictions between pressures for economic survival versus the long-term considerations for sustainability and conservation in the policy arena. In this second part the author reviews and evaluates further areas of administrative innovation in this area and considers the climate for policy and institutional change 25 years after the Stockholm Conference. In conclusion, basic principles guiding policy formulation, methodology and administrative organization are presented to allow administrations to gain some ground in the worsening environmental balance sheet.     

Föderalismus und wohlfahrtsstaatliche Entwicklung. Österreich und die Schweiz im Vergleich

Starting from the stylised fact that federal institutions are held to be inimical to welfare state expansion, this paper examines the ways in which federalism has shaped the dynamics of welfare state development in Switzerland and Austria. A comparison of these different federal polities reveals that the welfare breaking effect attached to federalism crucially depends on the extent of vertical power separation. In both countries economic competition among constituent units did not fuel a race to the bottom in social standards. In Switzerland, the most important reason connected to federalism for why federal social policy was delayed and downsized was policy-preemption by the cantons and their considerable influence on the federal policymaking process. In contrast, the Austrian Länder neither had major social policy competencies nor an effective veto power which allowed them to block the centralisation of public policy. Instead, federalism is subordinate to the partisan arena at the central state level which itself is dominated by political parties quite favourable to welfare state expansion.     

The transition of migratory patterns in medium-sized cities

"The authors attempt to present some empirical findings regarding a phenomenon which they chose to call the 'transition in migratory patterns'.... The general hypothesis states that: changes in migratory patterns are due to an interaction between those economic, political and social processes which affect the distribution of the population; and that this interaction is also highly influenced by macroeconomic politics--an arena where technology plays a dominant role." Data are for Guadalajara and the state of Jalisco in Mexico. (SUMMARY IN ENG)     

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE POWER THEORY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF STATE DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES*

The ability of state leaders to influence economic growth and diversity within their states is a disputed issue within the literature on state economic development policy-making. This research contributes to this debate by developing comparative measures of state development agency power drawn from the emerging theory on organizational power. If state policy leaders have independent control over the economic performance of their states and if that influence is exercised through the administrative unit responsible for that activity, states which have supplied their agencies more resources and freedom in using those resources should outperform those states which have not.     

No direct taxation without new elite representation: Industrialization and the domestic politics of taxation

The nineteenth century marked the founding period of modern public finance. We examine the domestic and non-war related determinants of direct taxation in this early democratic period and in a state building context. We argue that the reasons for the expansion of direct taxation can be found in the political competition between different elite groups in the context of industrialization. Systematically differentiating between economic and political arenas, we show that intra-elite competition in industrializing economies leads to higher levels of direct taxation only if the new economic elites are able to translate their economic power into the political arena, either through the representative system or by extra-parliamentary means. In addition, we demonstrate that these processes are directly linked to public investments in policy areas related to the interests of new economic elites such as public education. Our analysis is based on novel subnational data from the period 1850 to 1910, enabling us to concentrate on the domestic determinants of direct taxation.     

Equality of Status, Inequality of Result: State Power and High-Level Radioactive Waste

American intergovernmental relationships are continually redefinedthrough political processes by which the state and federal governmentsseek to achieve their respective policy goals. Following a summaryof the development of federal policy for the disposal of high-levelradioactive waste (HLW), federal court cases that have resultedfrom the selection of Nevada as the nation's host for a HLWrepository are discussed. The cases raise, in a unique way,questions regarding the equality of states' power in the contextof constitutional principles such as the equal footing doctrine,the privileges and immunity clause, and the Tenth Amendment.Questions are also raised regarding the ability of states tosafeguard their interests in the political arena as describedin Garcia.     

A Comparison of Tobacco Policy in the UK and Japan: If the Scientific Evidence is Identical,Why is There a Major Difference in Policy?

Tobacco policy in the UK and Japan has diverged markedly. In the 1980s, both countries oversaw regimes with minimal economic and regulatory policies. Now the UK has become one of the most, and Japan one of the least, controlled (advanced industrial) states. These developments are puzzling to public health scholars who give primary explanatory weight to scientific evidence and a vague notion of “political will”, because policy makers possessed the same evidence on the harms of tobacco, and made the same international commitment to comprehensive tobacco control. Instead, we identify the role of a mutually reinforcing dynamic in policy environments, facilitating policy change in the UK but not Japan: policy makers accepted the scientific evidence, framed tobacco as a public health epidemic, placed health departments at the heart of policy, formed networks with public health groups and excluded tobacco companies, and accentuated socio-economic conditions supportive of tobacco control. This dynamic helps explain why the UK became more likely to select each tobacco policy control instrument during a series of “windows of opportunity”. Such analysis, generated by policy theory, is crucial to contemporary science/practitioner debates on the politics of “evidence-based policy making”: the evidence does not speak for itself, and practitioners need to know how to use it effectively in policy environments.     

Renewable Portfolio Standards and Policy Stringency: An Assessment of Implementation and Outcomes

This research examines the impact of increasing the stringency of renewable portfolio standards (RPS) on the consumption of energy produced from renewable sources. Putting prior findings in the context of policy learning, first we focus on technological innovation, factor endowments, and economic energy dependence of American states to track how RPS have proliferated and strengthened. Next, we look at the net effect of this RPS evolution on state fossil fuel energy divestment. To evaluate the interplay between: a) the political desire to lower fossil fuel use, b) technological feasibility to do so, and c) the economic trade‐offs and risks, we focus on the industrial sector dependence on energy security and affordability. Our results indicate that energy security is a priority and even in light of increasing RPS stringency, states with relatively weak but mandatory RPS are leaders in aggregate renewable energy consumption. This fact is due to favoring biofuel and hydro generation rather than solar and wind because of lower deployment costs.     

Introduction: Regulation and deregulation

Abstract. 'Deregulation' is best conceived as covering two separate sets of processes: changes to the structure of rules embodied in regulatory systems; and disturbances to the stability of those systems due to the inability of system 'governors' to function effectively. The most striking feature of deregulation is variety - in incidence, form and extent. This variety is a function of three broad sets of variables: place, notably national setting; time, notably the historical epoch and the stage in a regulatory cycle when deregulation happens; and arena, notably the economic arena and policy networks where deregulation takes place.