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Challenging conventional wisdom, Shienbaum argues that the U.S. federal government, not the private sector, created the dynamic New Economy. Declining economic competitiveness and relative global underperformance during the 1970s and early 1980s threatened America's post-war global leadership position, a role Washington was loath to relinquish, especially during the Cold War. Citing these threats to American leadership and security, government officials set out to make the U.S. economy more competitive by creating innovative technology policies combined with policies providing strong incentives to new entrants while removing regulatory protections from more established companies. The federal government, in other words, nurtured fragile high-tech start-ups while forcing larger companies to compete in the marketplace, in the process transforming regulatory capitalism into an entrepreneurial capitalism marked by innovation, entrepreneurship, and competition.
Shienbaum's book will be of interest to political scientists, policy makers, economists, and lay readers wanting to discover the causal factors that created the conditions for the unprecedented economic boom of the 1990s. Furthermore, by explicitly connecting government policy-making to economic change, Shienbaum reminds us of the basic but often-ignored truth that politics and economics are inescapably linked together. She concludes with a clear-eyed discussion of the limits of entrepreneurial capitalism and the forces lining up to oppose the New Economy.
List of contents
Preface
An Overview
Defining Entrepreneurial Capitalism
The Genesis of Entrepreneurial Capitalism
Legislating Entrepreneurial Capitalism
Financing Entrepreneurial Capitalism
Global Impact: Is Entrepreneurial Capitalism for Export?
Backlash: The Limits of Entrepreneurial Capitalism
Appendix: Historical Timeline of Innovation Legislation: Selected Provisions Providing Incentives for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs
Selected Bibliogrphy
Index
About the author
KIM EZRA SHIENBAUM is Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, Camden, and has written on a variety of subjects ranging from American Elections to the American Presidency. For over a decade she also has created, hosted, and produced the Rutgers public affairs radio series Head to Head sponsored by TIAA-CREF and broadcasted on over 75 public radio stations across America.
