The limits of industrialisation in “New Societies”: An Australian perspective

Abstract

Abstract The apparent success of export-oriented industrialisation in Japan, the so-called four little dragons — Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore — and increasingly during the last decade the southern coastal provinces of Guangdong and Fujian in China has cast a harsh spotlight on the generally poor industrial performance of the formerly “new societies” over the same period. Even the United States has been passing through a period of reduced competitiveness in traditionally strong manufacturing sectors, epitomised in the creation of the aptly named “rust belt” in the old industrial heartland. The other neo-Europes — Crosby's rather ugly neologism for countries of recent white settlement in the temperate zone — have to a differing degree also seen a halting performance from the industrial sector. In the case of many Latin American countries that sector has always remained limited in size and significantly uncompetitive. In all the “new societies” there has been a crisis of industrial competitiveness and a reappraisal of previous policies.