ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the crisis of transition to the downswing phase, examine the attempts by governments in the 1970s to manage the crisis, and speculate on the value of the Thatcherite experiment. The Keynesian mode of development, which committed governments to manage the level of demand in the economy through government expenditures and promoted high business expectations. As early as 1944, the government-funded Central Council of Industrial Design warned British industrialists that poor design would lead to lost markets at the end of the war. R&D is largely seen as a function of large corporations, and it has been suggested that British firms were generally too small to support the large R&D budgets. In the British car industry, a combination of poor product design and inept management has been blamed for the industries loss of market share. For example, Church points to the failings of the Austin, introduced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) in 1958.
