ABSTRACT
The crisis of the world economy in the 70s led all industrial nations to reconsider, correct and readjust their industrial policies to the new conditions of the world market. As trade liberalisation already accepted in the GATT sessions prevented states from the extensive use of tariff regulations in trade, governments shifted their interest towards structural policy measures. The export-oriented economies like the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) felt particularly threatened, on the one hand by the rise of the newly industrialised countries (NICs) which caused a considerable competition in mass production branches of industry like textiles, electronics and steel. By the extension of the international capital market, however, the multinational enterprises were enabled to shift the labour-intensive parts of production to certain developing countries (Fröbel et al. 1977). In the early 80s, in addition the international debt crisis has been felt as another threat to German exports. On the other hand, Japan and the US proved to be serious competitors in modern products. The nations highly integrated into the world market, such as the FRG, were thus forced to make a quick adjustment to their industrial structure, especially in view of the promising high technologies. A new race of nations had been born (Junne 1984).
