Decline, Adjustment or Resurgence? the Shape of Things to Come

Abstract

ULTIMATELY workers, the owners of capital and management must take (or be forced to take) the steps that will gradually alter a country’s industrial structure in response to changing competitive conditions. They can be left alone to read and interpret the signals that anticipate changes in their environment, they can be shielded for a time from the consequences of their actions or inaction; or they can be prodded, subsidised, motivated or otherwise encouraged to adapt. In the end, though, their responsibility cannot be shunned forever in a market-oriented system without fundamentally altering the tenets of democratic society.