Search results

In this chapter the two main routes to capital accumulation via industrial forms of production, namely the high-skills and low-skills routes are discussed, but with emphasis on the high-skills routes. There is a further distinction within the high-skills routes, between the second-wave industrialised nations such as Germany and Japan, and the Newly Industrialised Economies (NIEs) of the Pacific Rim, namely Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea. The former group have succeeded in establishing a highly skilled labour force, while the latter group are well on their way. Both sets of economies were faced with the task of emulating the nations of the first wave of industrial development. The attempt to catch up had a powerful influence on the relationship between the processes of state formation and industrialisation and skill formation. The authors then discuss the Asian NIEs variant of the high-skills route looking at the influence of state formation, problems facing the political elite, industrialisation, the relationship between the processes of state formation and industrialisation and the management of capital and labour. This chapter looks at the relationship between these factors in both sets of economies and discusses the effects of historical developments on their current economic positions.