ABSTRACT
Within the framework of the structural adjustment of the 1980s, macroeconomic reforms and the microlevel modernization both made possible and forced by them were seen as the key to enhancing competitiveness. This view neglects the importance of expanding and building up economic regions and continuously optimizing external economies. Neoliberal theories of allocation and foreign trade point to properly functioning international technology markets and the optimal character of decentrally organized decision-making processes, rejecting active, anticipatory industrial and technology policies. However, those ICs and NICs developed most dynamically and best improved their position in the international economic hierarchy in the 1980s which succeeded in actively structuring the mesolevel.
