ABSTRACT
This chapter stressed the fact that the industrial policy mix adopted in most advanced countries differed from that in LDCs for ideological reasons as well as economic ones. The growing involvement of the state naturally created correspondingly greater scope for influencing decisions. There were simply more decisions to influence. This process of influencing policy has, perhaps, gone furthest in the USA where the proliferation of lobbies, notably in and around Washington, has proceeded unchecked for many years. In socialist countries, decisions regarding industrial policies take place in an entirely different environment from that in the West and cannot be exhaustively explored here. Socialist countries have not managed to avoid the effects of the worldwide slowdown and this has given rise to a number of reforms. Disillusionment with import substitution spread once it became apparent that the objectives were not to be quickly realised and that its pursuance entailed a variety of undesirable side effects.
