Converging on Competitiveness: Garbage Cans and the New Global Economy

Abstract

Converging on competitiveness Whether``competitiveness'' is a``dangerous obsession'' (Krugman, 1994) is an open question, but it is an obsession in contemporary political discourse. The concept is so much in play that it is parodied in Dilbert cartoons and trumpeted in the halls of Congress, where nearly all things are said to enhance``our competitiveness in the global economy'' or``diminish our ability to compete in world markets''. Scientists concerned about research and development, farmers concerned about erosion, aerospace firms seeking to create defense monopolies, advocates of deregulation, tort reform, health care reform, the telecommunications bill, bilingual education, Englishonly schooling, transportation spending, the`information superhighway', and the space station, budget hawks, budget doves, and many others have stressed the significance of their projects to the great struggle for national competitiveness. Even the intelligence community has joined the fightöthe New York Times reports that the CIA may be remade as an``economic spy'' charged with advancing US interests in the competitiveness struggle. Why have competitiveness and the global economy become so important in contemporary policy discourse? And with what consequences? In this paper I explore these questions, building upon Krugman's``Competitiveness: the dangerous obsession'' (1996, page 119), first published in Foreign Affairs in 1994. There, and in related works, Krugman attacked the emergent conventional wisdom about the global economy as``pop internationalism'', and disparaged the belief that the maintenance of national competitiveness is a fundamental economic problem. He argued that from an economic perspective``concerns about competitiveness are ... completely unfounded'', and explored reasons for the power of the competitiveness idea and some consequences of its emergence. Krugman's project is to expose weaknesses in the economic arguments offered by unscrupulous or unschooled`policy entrepreneurs'. In this paper I am agnostic about these economic debates, working from the assumption that, within reason, the quality of economic arguments is irrelevant in the political process. I accept as inescapable what Krugman laments: the emergence of globalization

Trade policymaking in the real world: Elites' conflicting worldviews and North American integration

“…Consequently, actors who want to build widespread support for liberalization shy away from neoclassical arguments -even when those are the ones they themselves believe. Conversely, the rhetoric of 'competitiveness' can suit a wide range of political goals (see Sousa, 2002).…”

“…NAFTA advocates routinely argued that increased national and regional competitiveness, derived from an integrated North American market, would make business more capable of competing against foreigners (see Sousa, 2002). That would significantly increase their sales in export markets (and protect their existing shares of domestic markets).…”

A Grounded Approach to Identifying National Competitive Advantage: A Preliminary Exploration

“…5 The need for valid measurement of national competitiveness Governments have shown no decline in their obsession with national competitiveness (Sousa, 2002), and nor should they. If national competitiveness is the sum of the complex of factors about a country that facilitates the dynamic ability of firms to achieve and sustain adequate capital returns, and thereby help support and improve the living standards of citizens, national competitiveness should rightly be the constant preoccupation of governments.…”

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IntroductionThe pervasive use of the term`national competitiveness' both in public policy parlance and in press reporting suggests that the concept is uncontroversial (Sousa, 2002). Governments around the world seem to have embraced the idea with confidence ö some would say obsessiveness (Krugman, 1994).

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‘Power in place’: viticultural spatialities of globalization and community empowerment in the Languedoc

“…Concurrent with the persuasion of the Mayor of Aniane by Frêche and Vézinhet was the need to secure wider political approval for Mondavi's plans, not least with the Préfet, the representative of the French State, and also departmental heads of government ministries likely to be imbricated in the local arrangements for Mondavi's installation. Aligning the major political actors in support of Mondavi was undertaken by Frêche and Vézinhet, using seductive concepts of modernity, growth, competitiveness and bolstered regional imagery, that is, the crucial logics emanating from élite constructions of contemporary processes of globalization (see Krugman 1994; Sousa 2002). As Allen (1999), citing Lipovetsky (1994, 165), suggests, this seduction seeks to take advantage of ‘embryonic tendencies that are already present by making them more attractive to people’.…”