Emulation Dynamics

World System Approaches and Analyses

Abstract

Today, arguments on the whys and hows of the decline of America's industrial strength, starting around 1973, are abundant, and the great industrial debates thus flourish. However, they seem to share the profoundly similar viewpoint: American pre-eminence is taken for granted. The process by which America assimilated European technologies, particularly those of British and Germany, has already been dealt with by economic historians. But, because of thier professional interest in the investigation of economic behavior, they discussed little of the government's involvement in the process of assimilation and the subsequent growth periods. In this context, this essay focusses on the emerging process of American (and also British and German) industrial pre-eminence. Then, this research can be distinguished from economists' previous attempts in two ways. First, our focus is extensively on the government intervention and its implications. Second, our research epistemology is policy-biased: this study assumes that “visible policy, ” rather than the “invisible hand, ” is a prime mover for particular country in its emergence as powerful techno-industrial nation.