ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is not to offer bold judgements but rather to excuse timid indecision. The factors affecting economic growth can, for the purposes of argument, be grouped into three broad categories, which might be labelled environmental, structural and managerial. Economists have considered social change where it can be easily quantified but otherwise overlooked it. The 'structural' explanation of British economic performance is similar to the environmental in its emphasis on long-term factors, but restricts itself to specifically economic variables. The maturity thesis has been lately adapted, in addition, to explain the unsatisfactory performance of the British economy since the Second World War. The favourite cudgel of their critics has been the comparison of British growth rates with those of other economies showing some or all the features of maturity credited with hampering expansion. There remain, however, genuine differences between the structural and managerial exponents which it is important to resolve.
