Industrial Policy Change in the Post-Crisis British Economy: Policy Innovation in an Incomplete Institutional and Ideational Envirnoment

Berry, CP (2016) Industrial Policy Change in the Post-Crisis British Economy: Policy Innovation in an Incomplete Institutional and Ideational Envirnoment. British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 18 (4). pp. 829-847. ISSN 1467-856X

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Abstract

Industrial policy rarely features in analysis of post-crisis economic policy change in Britain, despite manufacturing featuring centrally in the 'rebalancing' narrative espoused by elites since 2008. The article seeks to interrogate the character of recent governments' approaches to industrial policy and manufacturing industries. It does so through the prism of Peter Hall's 'three orders of policy change' framework, with particular reference to its application to macroprudential regulation by Andrew Baker. The article argues that the framework must be furnished with additional variables, namely, the type of institutional arrangements related to the policy area, and the status of the associated economic activities within the wider growth model, in order to better understand how ideas, institutions and interests interact in processes of policy change. The article finds little evidence of a 'paradigm shift' and suggests that innovations in industrial policy have served to reinforce the foundational assumptions of the British growth model.