Resisting Protectionism

Book excerpt: Milner explores the similarities between the economic conditions of the 1920s and the 1970s, where both Western Europe and the U.S. had high unemploymnet rates and sizeable agricultural and industrial overcapacity. She draws on evidence from six U.S. industries in the 1920s, six U.S. firms in the 1970s, and six French industries in the 1970s, and concludes that in the 1970s both nations had corporations with international market interests than they had in the 1920s. She believes that in modern industrial nations, the corporate sector plays an important role in policy determination, and that any move toward protectionism would be at the behest of large corporations with international interests. ISBN 0-691-05670-6: $29.50.