Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is concerned with the way in which the British government has responded to the growth market of information technology and discusses the changing international industrial structure, tariff and nontariff barriers and flows of technological knowhow. It describes the variables which are important in the determination of industrial policies and the 'fit' between ideologies towards markets, political systems and the instruments of industrial policy. The book focuses on the international plane to the case of Britain and illustrates the conflict between the 'core' ideology and political control of markets by the British state in a general review of British industrial policy. It reviews the structures for telecommunications, computers and microelectronics, coalescing into the one market of information technology and presents an historical analysis of policy towards these markets since 1964.