Explanations of British industrial decline : a critical realist perspective

The phenomenon of British industrial decline has attracted a massive range of analysis and explanatory argument. My intention here is to assess the explanatory power of several prominent explanations using some of the concepts of critical realism. After briefly discussing the explanatory failure of the neo-classical orthodoxy, I consider several alternative explanations stressing cultural, historical, and path-dependency factors. I then suggest what I take to be a more plausible set of explanatory factors. One of my central arguments is that questions about British industrial decline need to be contextualised in the pronounced internationalisation of the British economy, a feature that has persisted from the very early days of pre-industrial economic development, to the present day. It has frequently been argued that the British financial sector (usually referred to as 'the City') has retarded the development of industrial capitalism in Britain. I argue that the reverse is closer to the truth - and that this becomes clear if the internationalised context of British industrial and economic development is appropriately theorised.