4 - Post-Fordist Restructuring and Change

Question 1

How did UK deindustrialisation occur(1967-76)?

Answer 1

Wave of bankruptcies/mergers/plant closures, >1 million maufacturing jobs disappeared, firm restructures(relocation of production)

Question 2

How did America’s ‘Rust Belt’ decline?

Answer 2

Decline of industry resulted to decline of surrounding industries - 1970–90: manufacturing went from 50% of total employment to 37% in US Rust Belt, resulted in disinvestment and unemployment

Question 3

What is Fordism’s virtuous cycle?

Answer 3

Increased production → unions → increased wages → welfare state and state demand → increased demand

Question 4

What was the implications of a Post-Fordist economy?

Answer 4

Loose monetary policy alongside high rates of inflation led to stagflation and resulted in sever recession, meaning Fordism’s virtuous cycle was broken as it was interrupted by increased unemployment/falling demand.

Question 5

How was the state restructured?

Answer 5

Moving away from Keynesian welfare state, neoliberalism introduced, changing patterns of consumption, changing politics, decline of private sector unions

Question 6

Why did the decline of Fordism occur?

Answer 6

Exogenous shocks(e.g. 1973 Oil Crisis - oil prices quadrupled in 1973), foreign competition(British economy’s world makrket share fell from 10% in 1972 to 7% in 1988), breakdown of mass markets(product differentiation)

Question 7

What is crisis theory?

Answer 7

Boom & bust are natural parts of capitalism - the economy undergoes periodic bouts of crisis as phases of over-accumulation, resulting in a major restructuring of both the labour process and the state

Question 8

What is regulation theory?

Answer 8

A new regime of accumulation is put in place(e.g. Fordism) → it undergoes crisis → the mode of regulation(e.g. Thatcherism/Reaganomics - rules which coordinate the system) can no longer support it → different policies and strategies put in place → new mode of regulation → new regime of accumulation

Question 9

What is Polanyi’s Double Movement?

Answer 9

The Great Transformation - the power of the private sector imposing a utopian ideal of the self-regulating market(the first movement) drives a reorganisation to protect society from market forces(the second movement)

Question 10

What changes did post-Fordism bring?

Answer 10

Production changes - flexibility, outsourcing, subcontratcting; economic changes - vertical disintegration, rise of services, economy more complex/fragmented; labour market changes - increased income inequality, fracturing of labour market(unions weakened, increase in temp workers), more women in teh workplace