"The Construction and Consequences of EC Industrial Policy: Lessons from the Electronics Sector"

Lawton, Thomas C. (1995) "The Construction and Consequences of EC Industrial Policy: Lessons from the Electronics Sector". In: UNSPECIFIED, Charleston, South Carolina. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Three main arguments are advanced in this paper. First, the past decade has witnessed a sea-change in the nature of the agendasetting and policy-making processes for the EC electronics sector. EC policy-making has gone from being an intra-institutional consensus-building process, to a multi-sided bargaining process. The role of nongovernmental actors in policy formulation and implementation has increased significantly since the early 1980's. In particular, large European high technology firms have significantly enhanced their policy bargaining position in relation to public sector actors. Firms have gone from being 'policy outsiders' to 'policy partners'. In fact, EC policy for electronics substantially derives from bargaining between the European Commission and large European electronics firms - the firms frequently exerting the most influence over the final policy outcome. Second, at a 'sub-pentagonal' level, EC policy results in part from intra-Commission bargaining. Ideological cleavages exist as much within the Commission as they do within the Council of Ministers. Thus, policy is in part an outcome of intra-Directorate-General (DG) rivalties, and bargaining between those bureaucrats and Commissioners of different ideological persuasions. Third, despite the rhetoric and the stated intention to move towards greater liberalisation, policy for electronics retains considerable interventionist elements.

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