Technology and the new diplomacy : the creation and control of EC industrial policy, with special reference to semiconductors

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the changing nature of European Community (EC) policies towards semiconductor producing firms. It is an important tale to recount, as industrial affairs have, since the early 1980s, been at the forefront of Europe's search for common areas of action. The creation of a single Community-wide industrial policy may thus be viewed as another substantial step towards economic and political union. Whereas other works look at the European Monetary System (EMS) for instance, and test its success or failure as a policy to enhance integration, I look at industrial policy and endeavour to place it in the context of the integration process. One of the hypotheses which I want to develop in this work is that EC policy for the semiconductor industry evolved as part of the Community's efforts to create a common area of action for industrial affairs. The shift in policy emphasis away from the national and towards the EC level for this industry, established semiconductors as the Community's vanguard high technology industry in the post-Single European Act drive towards economic integration. This hypothesis can only be tested through a critical study of EC industrial policy. In undertaking such a study, I am aware of the need to advance a definition of this much abused concept, and to identify its constituent policy mechanisms. Moreover, it is essential to look at how policy evolves and who (i.e. which actors) exerts the greatest degree of control over the policy-making process.