Irish industrial policy is of recent origin. Free trade has replaced an earlier reliance on protection to generate industrial growth. For the past 25 years Irish industrial policy has been characterised by the attraction of foreign capital, export-led industrialisation, and state intervention. The Industrial Development Authority has been the major agency in orchestrating this policy of development. Multinational corporations have made a significant contribution to this process. The current recession has led to a deeper involvement by the state in industrial policy. Corporatist instruments have been devised which retain considerable influence. Industrial policy is experiencing further change. There is a new emphasis on the generation of an independent Irish industrial sector, while monetary constraints are imposing restrictions on the range of policy options open to the state.

Prior to 1974/5 the industrial problem of Italy was clearly seen as that of trying to industrialise the South. However, the end of cheap labour and cheap energy meant that Mezzogiomo industrialisation could no longer be seen in isolation from the rest of the country. Underpinning the new policy was the compromise set of measures approved at the end of 1977 to deal with the problem of ‘industrial reconversion and restructuring’. It is not clear that the more general approach now in effect adds up to a coherent industrial strategy. However, a quantitative evaluation of past investment policies reveals a considerable flexibility in the policy response to the new economic conditions.

Starting from the relative success of the Austrian economy in the 1970s the problems of industrial policy and the position of industrial policy in the context of economic policy are examined. Policies directed towards improving the industrial structure have had a lower priority than policies aimed at producing sufficient total economic growth to avoid unemployment and disputes over the distribution of the GNP. The structure of Austria's foreign trade shows that Austria still has not achieved the industrial structure appropriate for a small industrial country in an exposed geographical position. In Austria the problems of industry are regarded as legitimate affairs of government and, although there is criticism of the details of government intervention, the economic responsibility which is conferred on the government is an extensive one. Austria's political culture exhibits both consociationalist traits, with most laws being passed with the support of the two big parties,, and ‘social partnership’ in the form of voluntary co-operation between the unions and employers' associations. The political consensus means that discussion tends to revolve round technical rather than fundamental issues of industrial policy. Since the early 1970s the preservation of full employment has become the dominating industrial policy goal of the Austrian government; as a result, policy is mainly reactive rather than proactive. Fiscal investment aids are by far the most important industrial policy instrument, though their use has been criticised. There are also direct expenditure schemes, aimed at particular sectors as well as the general stimulation of investment; these aids have also been criticised. The prospects for the introduction of industrial policies more focussed on qualitative changes in industrial structure are not considered good, but political stability seems assured.

This paper deals with the contribution of economic planning to French industrial policy and performance. This was highly significant until the mid 1960s but declined thereafter due to a combination of economic and political factors. The inherent problems of across-the-board regulation in a complex industrial economy reinforced the displacement of the planners from the traditional French elite. In the late 1970s, planning had begun again to provide an informational support to other policies for restructuring industry in the face of the world market. The paper ends with an evaluation of the Mitterrand government's aspirations for more dirigiste industrial planning.