Debating Industrial Policy

Industrial policy is not new, but it has returned with unusual confidence. Governments across the world have committed substantial sums to shaping the direction of their economies, backed by a faith in state capacity unfashionable a generation ago. Most of the literature that followed argues one side at a time. This book puts the two cases against each other, in an interdisciplinary exchange across politics, philosophy and economics. The debating structure makes this possible. Unlike edited collections, where contributions rarely meet, each position here is tested against the other. Readers can see where the disagreement lies and where it does not. Following this format, the book addresses key questions such as: has neoliberalism really governed recent decades, and does the state now need to return? Is any government equipped to steer an economy, given radical uncertainty, fragmented knowledge and economic complexity? What happens to disagreement, participation and openness once a society is organised around a mission? And is industrial policy, whatever its flaws, simply necessary to meet the problems in front of us? As both sides of each debate make clear, industrial policy turns out to carry commitments that reach well beyond economic management, touching on the relationship between state and society, political authority, the public sector's claim on technological and economic futures, and the shape of liberal democracy itself. Written for scholars of political economy, political theory and economic policy, this is the book that sets the terms on which industrial policy should be argued.