Government-industry Relations Research Articles

Concentration of power: A UK case study examining the dominance of incumbent automakers and suppliers in automotive sociotechnical transitions

Sustainable transition scholarship has recently challenged the stereotypical characterisation of sociotechnical transitions, by revisiting the concept of creative destruction. The central counterargument is that new paradigms do not destroy old ones, but rather extend and complement them. Based on a case study of the UK’s automotive industry, this article argues that established firms lead the industry in technological innovation, in large part due to regional regulatory frameworks and preferential state accumulation projects. That article then goes on to examine the ‘power flows’ surrounding incumbent firms as the primary agents of creative accumulation within global production networks. By exploring revealing linkages between evolving government-industry relations, the motorsport sub-sector, and component suppliers, this article renders a more nuanced understanding of incumbent firms as empowered, multi-level agents of innovation. Finally, this article evaluates the UK’s incremental, ‘zero-carbon’ pathway and raises some concerns about the regime’s current sociotechnical configuration, and its fitness to achieve its stated goals.

The dynamics of university-industry-government relationships in Nanoscience: investigating the Triple-Helix differences between Iran and Switzerland

ABSTRACTThis study aims to find the differences between national and international relationships in Iran and Switzerland’s Nanoscience research between 2008–2015. The results show significant differences some of which are attributed to the general dichotomy of developed-developing countries like stronger University-Industry-Government relations in Switzerland; but others are not, especially those pertaining to bilateral relations. In summary, the Government-Industry relations in Switzerland are generally closer in this field because the emerging characteristics of Nanoscience call for more state intervention, even in the context of developed countries. Greater Government-University relations in Iran can be explained by referring to the structure of national innovation system of this country. However, the no significant differences between University-Industry relations result needs further research so that it may in turn lead to improvements of the triple-helix calculations. Lastly, some theoretical implications and further research directions are suggested at the end.

Governance capacity, state policy and the rise of the Chongqing notebook computer cluster

ABSTRACTThe ability of a local development-oriented state to make their localities nodes in global production networks (GPNs) depends on the policy instruments available to it and the capacity of various actors to exploit this policy envelope fully and effectively. The post-2008 relocation and expansion in Chongqing of a coastal Chinese notebook computer manufacturing cluster is a compelling example of an activist state relocating and expanding parts of a GPN, and exporting globally from an inland location. Functional roles and governance capacity are examined through a study of the ways in which the Chongqing Municipal Government drew on government–industry relations, economic infrastructure, and social overhead capital provision, labour market organization and preferential policies, including measures to support chain logistics in and after industrial transfer, to couple its ambitions of lead companies, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and local enterprises with its own strategic goals.

Friends in high places: Government-industry relations in public sector house-building during Britain’s tower block era

Britain’s high-rise public housing era is widely seen as a serious social policy mistake. We show that the problems associated with this housing format were known to policy makers at an early stage, while tower blocks were also substantially more expensive, both from the perspective of central, and local, government. Conservatives governments championed high-rise mainly owing to the political advantages of urban containment. Major building contractors then used their close links with (central and local) policy-makers to aggressively lobby for high-rise ʽsystem building,’ as their expertise in this field enabled them to dominate the sector and exclude local competitors.

State–defence industry relations in the European context: French and UK interactions with the European Defence Agency

ABSTRACTWhile many have noted that EU member states have different preferences over the prospect of an integrated EU defence, analyses that specifically explore state–industry relations in the definition of EU defence-industrial issues, and in the evolution of the Common Security and Defence Policy in general, are lacking. This is surprising, given that different configurations of government–industry relations have represented a persistent impediment to European defence-industrial cross-border collaboration. This article investigates how state–defence industry relations impact on member states’ preferences towards the EU defence-industrial framework. Based on the case studies of the interaction of France and the UK with the European Defence Agency, this analysis focuses on the difference between public and private defence firms’ governance settings as the crucial explanatory variable accounting for diverging member states’ preferences in this domain.

To Lobby or to Partner? Investigating the Shifting Political Strategies of Biopharmaceutical Industry Associations in Innovation Systems of South Africa and India

The role of industry associations in shaping policy through various lobbying activities is well established. In most cases, while such activities are deemed essential from an industry perspective, they also carry negative connotations connected to narrow rent-seeking and the pursuit of elites’ interests which run counter to the public good and discourage competition and subsequent innovation. As such, industry associations have long been excluded from discussions regarding the relational dynamics and evolution of innovation systems. In contrast, this paper builds upon more recent work that places industry associations as key intermediary actors that facilitate knowledge exchange and institutional capacity building, particularly in the context of developing countries where limited institutional capacities and substantial knowledge gaps can limit both innovation and development. Employing a qualitative cross-national comparison, this paper examines the changing roles and activities of biopharmaceutical industry associations in the development of the South African and Indian pharmaceutical industries, with a particular focus on government–industry relations. For doing so, the paper captures developments during three main periods through which both the South African and Indian biopharmaceutical industries have similarly evolved, although within different national contexts: (1) pre-liberalization, (2) expanding pluralism, and (3) increasing partnership. We argue that in South Africa and India, particular historical trajectories and lack of institutional capacities are shifting industry associations away from ineffective lobbying to a new political approach that emphasizes partnering with government in the pursuit of not only narrow industry objectives, but also broader development aims.

Rhetoric of a troubled industry: the case of the Dundee jute industry during the inter-war period

This study examines the rhetorical strategies deployed by supporters of the Dundee jute industry (DJI) during the legislative debate surrounding British trade policy of the inter–war period. It conducts a content analysis of the House of Commons debate on 2 February, 1938 on a motion entitled 'Importations from Overseas'. This debate highlights the position and the rhetorical strategies of the jute industry through its parliamentary surrogates. Analysis suggests that rhetorical strategies challenged policy, while avoiding a direct or explicit challenge to the dominant institutional logic of free trade. This study also furthers our understanding of government–industry relations in the jute industry during the inter–war period.

Kisei Kanwa to Shijo Kozo no Henka: Koku, Sekiyu, Tsushin Sekuta (Deregulation and Changes in Market Structures: A Comparative Analysis of Equilibrium Paths in the Aviation, Oil and Telecommunications Sectors)

Many books researching privatization and deregulation in Japan were published every year until the mid-1990s, in both Japanese and English; many of those works are mentioned in the literature review of this book (pp. 16–22). The privatization and deregulation of telecommunications took place almost simultaneously in Japan, US, and Great Britain and they were some of the earliest in adopting neoliberal policies; through clever manipulation of information, the activities of the Rincho (Second Provisional Administrative Reform Commission, 1981–1983) were widely reported by the media, thereby gaining the attention of researchers. Privatization and deregulation were not just studied by economists, they were also of interest to political scientists studying Japanese government–industry relations, beginning with the notion of ‘Japan, Inc.’ (pp. 22–27). Moreover, research on the deliberation process of the Rincho has focused on the debate over whether to view Japanese politics as a pluralistic political process, bureaucrat-led quasi-democracy, or corporatist decision-making style. For example, in the 1987 inaugural issue of the journal ‘Leviathan’, which had a special focus on ‘The Rise of Neo-conservatism’, several authors discussed the Nakasone Administration (1982–1987) and considered deregulation and privatization as important factors in explaining Nakasone politics.

Managing Decline: The Case of Jute

The decline of Dundee's jute industry is used here to throw fresh light on the much broader discussion of the ‘management of decline’ of the great staple industries – a key part of the historical political economy of twentieth-century Britain. The competitive pressures on jute are analysed, and the ways in which the industry responded to these. There is a particular focus on government-industry relations around the issue of protection, but also assessment of the overall employers’ response to market pressures. The experience of jute is compared with that of cotton, its closest comparator. The article suggests that decline was managed with some success until the 1970s, but that thereafter changes in the policy environment coupled with technological change led to the jute industry's rapid demise.

Government intervention in the British gas industry, 1948 to 1970

This article analyses government–industry relations in the nationalised British gas industry in the 1950s and 1960s. New archival research suggests that the government exercised a relatively benign influence on the gas industry in this period. The gas industry was provided with adequate funds for investment, its pricing strategies were not seriously affected by macroeconomic policy interventions, and it was allowed an unconstrained choice in its use of raw materials, even though its switch to oil feedstocks exacerbated the decline of the indigenous British coal industry. This relatively favourable assessment of the impact of government policy on the gas industry contrasts rather sharply with evidence from some of the other nationalised industries which have been investigated by historians. The implication is that we need to consider government intervention in the nationalised industries on a case-by-case basis rather than reaching for simple generalisations about the sector as a whole.

Towards a model of cross-sectoral policy development in leisure: the case of sport and tourism

Whilst leisure studies has now become an established field of academic analysis, there is still little literature on the dynamics of the leisure policy process, particularly in the area of cross-sectoral liaison. This paper attempts to synthesize previous research relating to general policy dynamics in developing a model of cross-sectoral policy development. In developing this model, particular attention is given to two major ESRC funded projects of the 1980s – work on Inter-Governmental Relations and Government Industry Relations – which produced two recognizably different models of the policy process. A combined model is proposed which is used to examine and compare the structures of the sport and the tourism policy communities and to analyse how these structures might effective the emergence of a sport-tourism policy network. In conclusion, the extent to which the model this paper develops might be applicable to other areas of leisure policy is discussed.

Towards a model of cross-sectoral policy development in leisure: the case of sport and tourism

Whilst leisure studies has now become an established field of academic analysis, there is still little literature on the dynamics of the leisure policy process, particularly in the area of cross-sectoral liaison. This paper attempts to synthesize previous research relating to general policy dynamics in developing a model of cross-sectoral policy development. In developing this model, particular attention is given to two major ESRC funded projects of the 1980s – work on Inter-Governmental Relations and Government Industry Relations – which produced two recognizably different models of the policy process. A combined model is proposed which is used to examine and compare the structures of the sport and the tourism policy communities and to analyse how these structures might effective the emergence of a sport-tourism policy network. In conclusion, the extent to which the model this paper develops might be applicable to other areas of leisure policy is discussed.

Manufacturing Ideology: Scientific Management in Twentieth-Century Japan

Japanese industry is the envy of the world for its efficient and humane management practices, yet the origins and implications of Japanese-style management are poorly understood. This book claims that Japanese stategies are not particularly novel, or even especially Japanese. The book traces the roots of these practices to scientific management, or Taylorism, an American concept that arrived in Japan at the turn of the 20th century. This imported model was then transformed in Japan's industrial workshops. This study charts Taylorism's Japanese incarnation from the 1920s to the Depression era, wartime mobilization and postwar productivity drives. Taylorism became more than a management tool, as it spread into economic growth, social policy and political authority in modern Japan. This historical and comparative perspective reveals the centrality of Japanese Taylorism to ongoing discussions of Japan's government-industry relations and the evolution of Fordist mass production.

The Politics of Protection: An Institutional Approach to Government–Industry Relations in the British and United States Cotton Industries, 1945–73

Internationally, the establishment of the GATT marked the beginning of a shift to greater trade liberalism. Against this background the governments of developed economies have generally treated textiles as a special case. This essay focuses on the differing level of political bargaining power exerted by the cotton industry interest groups in Britain and the United States, in their quest for protection, since 1945. It demonstrates that, to understand why pressure groups in the United States gained more concessions than those in Britain, it is necessary to consider the differing institutional and political environments in which they operated and the historical forces which shaped them.

Thinking about private prisons

At present, there are more than twenty companies in the United States, taking in more than $250 million in annual revenues, that operate private jails and prisons. These companies incarcerate about 50,000 inmates, a relatively small portion of the estimated 1.5 million individuals in jails and prisons across the country. Still, such private facilities are growing at four times the rate of state facilities.[1] The administration of legal punishment has long been the province of the state. But the growth in private prisons indicates that, to some extent, governments are modifying their traditional roles in relation to legal offenders. We are, by now, familiar with proposals to privatize various government operations. It is also commonplace for government agencies to contract with private industries for the provision of certain goods and services. But there are differences between these sorts of real or proposed government-industry relations and those exemplified by the private prisons boom.1 It is quite possible to conceive of the state without presupposing that one of its essential functions is, for instance, to supply postal services to its citizens. However, the enforcement of law, an aspect of which includes the administration of punishment, has been for many political theorists a crucial part of the raison d'etre of the state. Punishment has been seen as a state function in order to limit if not eliminate the influence of private interests over the detection, trial, and sanctioning of lawbreakers -- in short, to ensure that all individuals are treated equally before the law. In theory we strive to create institutions and procedures that punish all and only those who have broken the criminal law. In reality, of course, we know that we often fan short of this ideal. If the criminal justice system is viewed as a continuum that starts with policing and ends with the return of lawbreakers to society, privatization is making inroads at both ends of this continuum. We have private security firms engaged in the detection of law-breaking, and private companies of various kinds involved in the sanctioning of lawbreakers. At first glance these appear to be alarming trends since they represent the intrusion of private interests into the criminal justice system, an intrusion that is officially recognized, indeed encouraged, by the state. Yet perhaps it is possible to see the criminal justice system as consisting of different functions, some of which must remain in the hands of public authorities and others of which can be safely assigned to private enterprises overseen by public authorities. That, at least, is what proponents of privatization maintain. In his book on the subject, Charles Logan argues that, compared to existing public prisons along a range of dimensions, private prisons fare no worse than public ones and may fare better.[3] Logan's discussion covers, among other things, the quality, cost, and security of private prisons. Many of his arguments are quite persuasive.[4] As he makes clear, private prisons are not completely private -- they operate only under the control and authority of the government. This is a crucial point to keep in mind throughout the discussion that follows. We might be skeptical about the effectiveness of such government oversight, but we must concede to the proponents of private prisons that it is presupposed in their arguments. I will also concede that private prisons might provide incarceration facilities that are at least as secure, efficient, well-run, and humane as existing public jails and prisons. As Logan admits, that may not be conceding much, but it is not along these dimensions that my concerns lie. What is striking about Logan's analysis is what it leaves out. He does not question the recent alarming increase in the use of incarceration in the United States, taking it as a given that local, state, and federal governments will require expanded prison facilities. …

The New Political Economy

Political economy has been an extremely diverse field of study, embracing a large number of different approaches and methodologies. The fading of old ideological and methodological disputes and the development of new intellectual agendas in response to far-reaching changes in the economic and political structures of the world system have created the possibility of a new political economy which promises a reconstruction of the field and the overcoming of the methodological division between economics and political science. Recent critiques of established literatures in international political economy, state theory, comparative government-industry relations, and public choice are contributing to a new paradigm. Drawing on recent developments in economics such as New Keynesianism it combines the historical and institutionalist analysis of structure with rational choice analysis of agency.

The Changing Face of British Public Administration

This paper explores the changes in the study of Public Administration during the 1980s It documents the continuing contribution of organisation theory in the study of central-local government relations and government-industry relations; the failure of state theory; the challenge of rational choice theory; and the meteoric rise of the new public management. Public Administration experienced contradictory trends. The institutionalist tradition underwent a long lingering decline and was replaced by many competing approaches. The institutional base of the subject was eroded in the 1980s as the subject was absorbed by business schools and research funding evaporated. The New Right was the wellspring of ideas for government reform while ‘indifference’ best describes official attitudes to Public Administration. But against this inauspicious back cloth, there were clear signs of intellectual vigour with important innovations in, for example, bureaumetrics, policy networks and rational choice models of bureaucracy.

Towards a Common European Industrial Policy? The Case of High Definition Television

THE STAKES IN THE COMPETITION TO DEVELOP HIGH Definition Television (HDTV) are high. In the face of intense competition from Japan, the European effort has had the earmarks of a mission-oriented, Japanese-style industrial policy. But political support for a politically-derived European HDTV standard is matched by market demand. This case study reveals that the nature of government-industry relations in the EC has changed very little when large, politically powerful firms are involved, despite the increasingly prominent policy role of the European Community and the creation of the internal market.

Government-industry relations in Japan: Some contrasts with the UK and Europe

Government-industry relations in Japan: Some contrasts with the UK and Europe

Governments, Industries and Markets: Aspects of Government-Industry Relations in the UK, Japan, West Germany and the USA Since 1945.

Governments, Industries and Markets: Aspects of Government-Industry Relations in the UK, Japan, West Germany and the USA Since 1945.