Public Policy for Economic Competitiveness: An Analytical Framework and a Research Agenda

The prime concern is to highlight the strategic choice framework (SCF) for analysing localities' economic development and competitiveness policies in the context of globalisation. The SCF is centred on hypotheses relating to the governance of production, where 'governance' is understood in terms of the processes and associated structures for identifying and making strategic choices. The argument is illustrated from discussions of current realities at micro, meso and macro levels, and from analyses of the potential for 'democratic' development paths. This leads to an explicit focus on competitiveness policies. The conceptualisation of 'competitiveness' is discussed, and we advocate a focus on the degree to which policies serve the democratically determined public interest. The paper's secondary concern is to highlight implications of the SCF for the research agenda. We envisage an emphasis on boundary spanning research. It is suggested that the SCF be applied in the context of experiences in actual localities, in diverse forms of enterprise, and in networking and clusters; and that the SCF be deepened by focusing on aspects of three topics: economic democracy, economic performance and policy evaluation.