The Fading Miracle provides a lucid account of economic policy in West Germany from the late 1940s up to the present. First published in hardback in 1992, this paperback edition has been updated to include events since then. The authors describe and evaluate the major policy controversies and decisions, and place particular emphasis on the characteristically German institutions of policy counselling and their role in policy formation. The book will be of interest to students and teachers of economics, and to all those with an interest in the development of the greatest economic power in Europe.
German economic performance has astonished the world. At the turn of the century, Germany had been written off as the sick man of Europe. No more. Even as most of its European neighbors and OECD trading partners have struggled in the face of a turbulent global economy, the German economy has thrived. How does Germany do it? What is the secret? In The Seven Secrets of Germany, authors David Audretsch and Erik Lehmann answer these very questions. This book reveals, explains, and analyzes seven key aspects of Germany, its economy, and its society that have provided the nation with considerable buoyance in an era of global turbulence. These seven features range from the key and strategic role played by small firms to world leadership in its skilled and trained labor force, an ability to harness global opportunities through leveraging local resources, public infrastructure, the capacity to deal with change and confront challenges in a flexible manner, and the emergence of a remarkably positive identity and image. The Seven Secrets of Germany have insulated the country from long-term economic deterioration and enabled it to take advantage of the opportunities afforded from globalization rather than succumbing as a victim to globalization. This insights can be instructive to other countries and refute the defeatist view that globalization leads to an inevitable deterioration of the standard of living, quality of life, and degree of economic prosperity.
In this day and age, technology has become ever more prominent and omnipresent in our lives. As technological developments emerge and become more ubiquitous, it becomes vital to understand and analyze the impact of technology on society.Drivers of Competitiveness focuses on technology and seeks to analyze its causes and consequences on productivity and competitiveness and to examine the dynamic relationships between the different factors in various contexts. Building on state-of-the-art research, the book illustrates the global, institutional and technological factors that shape the performance of business and countries.Unlike most existing books in the field, Drivers of Competitiveness is a self-contained case book ideal for classroom use. The cases in the book are brand new. All of them are written in the context of the global financial crisis, providing a new perspective on the crisis that sheds light on its effect on competitiveness and on the diversity of responses by companies and countries. The cases and the analytical framework that emerges from the book constitute an essential kit for current and future managers, policy-makers and observers of global dynamics.
Korea, one of the original 'Tiger Economies', experiences a traumatic and largely unanticipated economic crisis in 1997-98 from which the country is still recovering. Despite having achieved spectacular economic advances from the early 1960s, the crisis laid bare numerous structural, economic and policy weaknesses. Charles Harvie and Hyun-Hoon Lee chronicle and analyze the key factors behind Korea's economic miracle from 1962-1989 and the causes that contributed to the economic downturn and ensuing crisis of 1997-98. Is the Korean economy still fading or is its revival underway? As the country undertakes a series of recovery measures, the authors consider the importance of the ongoing restructuring efforts in the corporate and banking sectors, the development of the 'new economy; and the potential economic advantages to be derived from reunification with the North.
Since David Hume, the interpretation of miracle stories has been dominated in the West by the binary distinction of fact vs. fiction. The form-critical method added another restriction to the interpretation of miracles by neglecting the context of its macrotexts. Last but not least the hermeneutics of demythologizing was interested in the self-understanding of individuals and not in political perspectives. The book revisits miracle stories with regard to these dimensions: 1. It demands to connect the interpretation of Miracle Stories to concepts of reality. 2. It criticizes the restrictions of the form critical method. 3. It emphasizes the political implications of Miracle Stories and their interpretations. Even the latest research accepts this modern opposition of fact and fiction as self-evident. This book will examine critically these concepts of reality with interpretations of miracles. The book will address how concepts of reality, always complex, came to expression in stories of miraculous healings and their reception in medicine, art, literature, theology and philosophy, from classic antiquity to the Middle Ages. Only through such bygone concepts, contemporary interpretations of ancient healings can gain plausibility.
In 1945, Germany and Japan lay prostrate after total war and resounding defeat. By 1960, they had the second and fifth largest economies in the world respectively. This global leadership has been maintained ever since. How did these 'economic miracles' come to pass, and why were these two nations particularly adept at achieving them? Ray Stokes is the first to unpack these questions from comparative and international perspectives, emphasising both the individuals and companies behind this exceptional performance and the broader global political and economic contexts. He highlights the potent mixtures in both countries of judicious state action, effective industrial organisation, benign labour relations, and technological innovation, which they adapted constantly - sometimes painfully - to take full advantage of rapidly growing post-war international trade and globalisation. Together, they explain the spectacular resurgence of Deutschland AG and Japan Incorporated to global economic and technological leadership, which they have sustained to the present.
`...a most significant addition to the literature on its subject.' - Roger Morgan, Professor of Political Science, European University Institute, Florence An unconventional overview of a new and normal Germany fifty years after World War 2 and five years after unification. The authors address the challenges of ageing and migration to a tangled national identity; their impact on a cautious yet resilient society, and an inertial yet dynamic economy; and the frequently surprising ways Germans have learned to cope with one another, redefine and pursue their interests, and deal with a changing world after two dictatorships, two world wars, and one cold war.
Stunning shifts in the worldviews of states mark the modern history of international affairs: how do societies think about—and rethink—international order and security? Japan's "opening," German conquest, American internationalism, Maoist independence, and Gorbachev's "new thinking" molded international conflict and cooperation in their eras. How do we explain such momentous changes in foreign policy—and in other cases their equally surprising absence? The nature of strategic ideas, Jeffrey W. Legro argues, played a critical and overlooked role in these transformations. Big changes in foreign policies are rare because it is difficult for individuals to overcome the inertia of entrenched national mentalities. Doing so depends on a particular nexus of policy expectations, national experience, and ready replacement ideas. In a sweeping comparative history, Legro explores the sources of strategy in the United States and Germany before and after the world wars, in Tokugawa Japan, and in the Soviet Union. He charts the likely future of American primacy and a rising China in the coming century. Rethinking the World tells us when and why we can expect changes in the way states think about the world, why some ideas win out over others, and why some leaders succeed while others fail in redirecting grand strategy.
Employing 286 scholars, this two volume encyclopedia contains entries on post-World War II European political history and groups, significant events and persons, the economy, religion, education, the arts, women's issues, writers, and more.
Integration is the most significant European historical development in the past fifty years, eclipsing in importance even the collapse of the USSR. Yet, until now, no satisfactory explanation is to be found in any single book as to why integration is significant, how it originated, how it has changed Europe, and where it is headed. Professor Gillingham s work corrects the inadequacies of the existing literature by cutting through the genuine confusion that surrounds the activities of the European Union, and by looking at his subject from a truly historical perspective. The late-twentieth century has been an era of great, though insufficiently appreciated, accomplishment that intellectually and morally is still emerging from the shadow of an earlier one of depression, and modern despotism. This is a work, then, that captures the historical distinctiveness of Europe in a way that transcends current party political debate.
