Government and business: The automobile industry and the public sector in Michigan

Abstract

This paper explores the thesis that the relationship between business and government in capitalist societies is complex, is variable over time, and is contingent on cultural understandings of the proper role of government in society. The relationship is complex because it involves three components. First, business (more broadly, the economy) supplies resources for government. Second, economic changes, including changes in business organization, spawn changes in public policy, not all of which are favorable to business. Finally, business leaders and government officials are caught up in a bidirectional lobbying situation. These linkages are studied in one specific situation, the relationship between the automotive industry and state government in Michigan. Both quantitative and impressionistic evidence indicate that the relative power of business has changed over the last quarter-century. Moreover, the course of the interaction has been influenced by the open, progressive political culture established prior to the industrial revolution in Michigan. Finally, tentative suggestions for incorporating a contingent and variable relationship into models of the interaction between the polity and the economy are made.