The Political Promotion of "Future Industries" and Innovation in the Federal Republic of Germany and Great Britain, ca. 1965-1990

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Historical research on politics confronting economic structural change during the last third of the 20th century has mainly focused on the crises of "old" industries (coal, steel, shipbuilding, textiles). In contrast, the project proposed will analyze the promotion of "future industries" supposed to be especially innovative, and of research and development in general. Comparing the respective policies in the Federal Republic and Great Britain from the mid-1960s to the end of the 1980s, it will concentrate especially on the aerospace industry as well as on the information and communication technologies. Pursuing the general question to what extent the respective policies were following specific national traditions and concepts or if any convergences can be observed over the course of the decades, two highly industrialized countries with considerable differences regarding political institutions and economic structures will be investigated. Mutual observations, transnational cooperation and European industrial policy will be considered as well. The first step of research will be the compilation of comprehensive data about the respective expenditure in both countries. The figures will especially have to reveal the financing institutions and beneficiaries as well as forms and objectives of subsidies, but also their quantitative importance in regard to overall state expenses and industrial subsidies. Second, contemporary perceptions of innovation and "future industries", economic concepts and their significance in general debates about industrial policies will have to be elaborated. In particular, this applies to the debates about aid to "old" industries that in effect competed with high-tech industries for government funding. At the same time, the project will have to analyze to what degree the promotion of "future industries" reflected general imaginations of economic and social future. Third, important political decisions will be reconstructed in detail to analyze the relevance of single actors and the determinants of their actions. The comparison of respective policies in both countries and in the course of time finally has to rely on the data compiled, contrasting contemporary assessments with long-term quantitative developments. The project will focus on the promotion of industries and single enterprises through government payments and tax deductions but will also consider respective measures of infrastructure or foreign trade policy. Science and university policies, cooperations between enterprises and universities, and in-depth business histories will be disregarded for pragmatic reasons.