ABSTRACT
This divergence of views on the causes of internationalisation is in sharp contrast to the recognition by all the books (with the exception of Chen) that the global manufacturing sector is undergoing a profound structural change, which cannot accurately be characterised as recession. Ballance and Sinclair used the term 'crisis' to describe the competitive threat being faced by the mature industrial market economies, and each of the other books recognises the persistence and systemic nature of uneven rates of technological progress and innovation. These have led to high rates of unemployment and trade conflict, and the attendant problems of coping with these changes have brought industrial policy, trade restrictions and restructuring to the forefront of public debate, not just in the LDCs or the Socialist bloc, but also in the heartlands of the global capitalist system. In order either to allow this industrialisation to take place, or alternatively to provide respite from the competitive pressures towards de-industrialisation, some measure of trade protection is recognised as inevitable by all of the books under review.
