Policy Responses to the Interwar Economic Crisis

This book is about national economic policy responses to the Great Depression of the interwar period. Taking off from a generally liberal starting point in the 1920s, states diverged greatly in their responses. Some were daring while others remained conservative. The two groups further differed among themselves in both degree and kind. The book gives a certain shape to this messy reality by identifying broad policy patterns (paradigms), and offers an explanation of it which emphasizes the ideational disposition of policy actors while recognizing the context that limits what they can do. More specifically, it argues that the ideas held by rulers and the strategies they consequently developed regarding three major groups of interest business, labour, and, most critically, agrarians largely determined economic policy variation across nations.

Examines the economic policy responses of states to the Great Depression of the interwar period Identifies broad policy patterns and offers an explanation which emphasizes the ideational disposition of actors Argues that ideas regarding business and labour largely determined economic policy variation across nations

Autorentext

Adnan Türegün is Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University, Canada. His research interests include historical sociology, social stratification, professionalization, and immigrant economic integration.

Inhalt
Preface.- 1. The Interwar Economic Crisis in Comparative Research Perspective.- 2. Limits of the Possible for Economic Policy Choice.- 3. Protectionism: A Safe Haven or Missed Opportunity?.- 4. Proto-Fordism: Seizing the Moment under Democracy.- 5. Neomercantilism, Mark I, under Dictatorship with an Agro-Industrial Base.- 6. Neomercantilism, Mark II, under Dictatorship of the Bureaucracy.- 7. Conclusion.