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475 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 9 (1984)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0475 and id is 1 raw text is: PREFACE The sluggish economy has drawn attention to plant closures and their conse- quences. In actuality, corporate disinvestment in U.S. manufacturing establishments is not a new phenomenon attributable solely to the recent recession. To the contrary, shutdowns are dramatically visible outcroppings in the restructuring of the Ameri- can economy. Rural industrialization is largely a residual vestige of an era in American economic history that is drawing to an end. In addition, many corpora- tions are shifting their manufacturing activities to locations outside of the United States or are divesting them altogether. Those that retain their manufacturing lines in the United States are frequently operating in highly competitive markets and are therefore unstable firms that locate in rural areas to reduce the cost-price ratio. Shutdowns are a predictable consequence of this process of economic succession. Thus, serious questions are raised regarding the relationship between the state, the economy, and the welfare of workers and communities. In this issue of The Annals attention is focused on three aspects of the deindus- trialization debate: the nature of the restructuring, its effects on workers and communities, and alternative policy options to deal with economic restructuring. In addition, two articles are included that describe recent experiences in Sweden and Britain and provide a comparative perspective that enlightens our consideration of the U.S. involvement in the restructuring of the world economy. RESTRUCTURING THE ECONOMY Capital mobility is the sine qua non of economic development, according to many economists. Without the freedom to invest, disinvest, and reinvest, capital cannot be used efficiently in the pursuit of its highest use value. Its movement from sector to sector and region to region must be unrestrained in order to ensure economic progress through a process Joseph Schumpeter referred to as creative destruction. More recently, economic analysts such as Lester Thurow argue that America's economic malaise is the result of too little capital mobility, not too much. Critics argue that the free flow of capital investments continually engenders the desertion of some areas, spatially and sectorally, while opening new areas of production. The result is a continual restructuring of the economy, the territorial division of labor, and the local social structures to the benefit of owners of capital and at the expense of workers and communities. In today's world economy, the movement of capital and the accompanying restructuring processes have little regard for national boundaries. Capital markets clearly are international. Their operation is producing a new international division of labor in which production of goods-especially labor-intensive production processes-is being shifted from advanced industrial nations, such as the United States, to less-developed and nearly developed nations. These international shifts also are restructuring the domestic economy, which is apparent in the relative decline of manufacturuing. It is this diminution of the traditional strength of manufacturing that is popularly referred to as deindustrialization. 9

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