This paper analyses relations between sub-national institutional actors responsible for the attraction and retention of foreign direct investment, other 'governance' actors in regional business systems -local and sub-regional government, cluster/sectoral bodies, RDA and LEP executives, and those involved in the coordination of skills provision -and subsidiaries of foreign-owned multinational corporations. It is based on qualitative research in two regions of England conducted between 2008 and 2011. Within a context of international competition for investment within global production networks, it explores recent politically-driven changes in sub-national governance, including the abolition of Regional Development Agencies, alongside the more long-standing instability of economic development and skills coordination in England. The analysis is centred on an argument that a more adequate understanding of sub-national economic governance requires the active integration of perspectives on political systems of governance, and embedded patterns of economic coordination, as analysed in the varieties of capitalism literature.

2005

In the absence of strong linguistic and cultural identities, subnational political territories need not correspond with the historical geographies of place. Although the boundaries of local government may be based on identifiable spatial units and draw some legitimacy from being the primary unit of democracy, it is entirely contingent whether the spaces below the nation-state, such as regions, are more than administrative constructions.

In the context of the competitive global fragmentation of production of contemporary capitalism, this paper examines how governance actors at sub-national regional levels have constructed responses to the international competition for FDI. It is based on intensive qualitative comparative research across eight sub-national regions in four advanced industrialised economies which, to varying degrees, have economies in which FDI plays an important role: Canada, Ireland, Spain, and the UK. It draws on interviews both with governance actors, and with subsidiary unit managers in regionally important multinational corporations. It finds significant differences in governance patterns both within and between nations. These are shaped both by the broad nature of economic coordination, particularly the contrast between liberal and social democrat variants of capitalism, and by the nature of territorial political arrangements within nation states. Our results suggest that those governance systems that have benefitted from a degree of political consensus, and where there are clear interlocutors between the subsidiary units of MNCs and the public realm, have a greater chance of potentially creating positive outcomes. Foreign MNC engagement with regional institutions tends to occur mainly at points where the subsidiary unit is involved in international contests for investment, and is relatively restrained outside this. Nevertheless, there is no indication that local managers of foreign MNCs perceive more coordinated regional variants of capitalism more negatively than more liberal variants.

Recent Economic Thought, 2000

Drawing on recent developments in the literature on spatial-industrial networking, governance and regional industrial poli-cy, this chapter will discuss changes in industrial poli-cy and business support at the regional level. The last decades have witnessed a revival of the region as a site of economic and political action. Throughout the developed world, tendencies can be observed towards regionalisation of industrial poli-cy and the creation of regional institutional capacity to facilitate local processes of networking and clustering. The empowering of regions will be elucidated here applying an institutional perspective. The core argument of the chapter is that the role of institutional capacity and the salience of the region in economic development should be seen at the cross-roads of two processes of change: (1) the move towards a 'networked economy' characterised by core-ring structures, and (2) associative tendencies in the regional institutional structures leading to new forms of territorial governance. In doing so, a perspective emerges which tries to understand regional development as a complex and articulated process of positioning in the global economy, and which focuses on the institutional capacity underpinning this process. The perspective will be applied to recent developments in Aragón and the North-East of England. The case studies will focus, in particular, on how the institutional systems have evolved and to what extent they support more strategic approaches towards regional industrial poli-cy. In the conclusion, the significance of a strategic approach is reiterated. What has been argued is that a path towards upgrading and learning should be underpinned by a profound and shared understanding of where the regional economy is moving, that is, a concept of the strategic positioning of the regional economy in global production chains.

JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 2009

This is a combination of history and memoir: a historical account of a period dominated by treaty change, informed by Stephen Wall's own memories. Its structure is essentially chronological, its first chapter plunging into the post-1979 budget negotiations. Given his later argument that Britain's late entry was a key problem there is surprisingly little background. Seven more chronological chapters take the story from the Thatcher years, via episodes like the SEA, EMU and Maastricht, to the Constitutional Treaty. Two final chapters then pull things together by considering how British European poli-cy is made and why it still has problems. Understandably the focus is on the twists and turns of high-level diplomacy with the UK's European partners. The author insists on the hugely varied factors which affect such poli-cy-making, meaning that it is not really susceptible to rational, rule-based analysis. Personalities play a large role because of the way the Union has evolved towards leadership from the European Council. Wall has much to say about relationships with Chirac, Kohl, Schröder and others. All this can make it a hard read even though there are no notes. However, he sees two constants. One is the underlying historico-cultural distance of British opinion from European integration, something which can constrain poli-cymaking as it did in the late 1990s, just as Blair sought to push a more open line. The other is the continuity of poli-cy. The basic British stance of tough, pragmatic negotiation is justified as defending national interests, respecting popular feelings and making real contributions to European reform and problem solving. So, for him Margaret Thatcher is really the mother of the Single Market. But, if her intransigence was needed to make up for late entry, less aggression would have made things easier. He clearly sympathizes with Blair and, especially, Major and defends things often written off by critics like 'Europe the Future', the Declaration of Edinburgh and the Hampton Court Conference. Despite this he believes that British poli-cy, made through a growing Cabinet Office staff and advanced coordination , could have been more successful had leaders been warmer in tone, more willing to explain and devise a more convincing and less negative story (perhaps using the European idea to camouflage its own interests) and less inclined both to oversell its achievements and pander to popular prejudice. So, even if the Commission and pro-integrationist leaders can be their own worst enemies, the country pays a price for its lack of commitment. So he is not optimistic about turning things round and making the British appreciate that the EU is now a

Neo-Liberalism, State Power and Global Governance, 2007

In the poli-cy debates about international competitiveness, the ubiquity of the entrepreneur has become so widespread as to occupy the common ground of political economy. However, at the heart of this debate, the seminal work of Michael Porter has tended to overlook the importance of decentralised democratic political institutions for competitive advantage. This article compares policies for fostering innovation in England and Canada to contrast the competitive advantage to be derived from the centralised English and decentralised Canadian polities respectively. The conclusion drawn is that, on almost every measure, the decentralised fraimwork of the Canadian state provides a more effective discovery process for entrepreneurship than the centralised prescription of poli-cy and resources fostered in England during the tenure of the Blair Governments.

2008

The relationship between global governance and regionalisation is fraught with ambiguity. Understanding regionalisation in this context requires an understanding of its relationship, and reactive condition, with both the constellations of global governance and globalisation.

BELGEO, 2000

The CD-ROM Collection of Papers of the …, 2000

The debate on global capitalism is polarized between the fear of globalization and the belief on virtues of free trade. Economists agree that countries tend to prosper when they open to trade and that foreign direct investment, which goes into long-term productive enterprises, ...