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Abstract

This chapter deals with the current transition from Fordism to post-Fordism in Britain and West Germany under the contrasting conservative regimes led by Mrs Thatcher and Herr Kohl.1 It addresses the question why Thatcherism has been so important for this transition in Great Britain and why no comparable regime (let alone one dignified with the label of Kohlism) has developed in West Germany. An explanation is sought in two related sets of factors: firstly, the modes of regulation and growth associated with the growth of Fordism in these societies and secondly, the nature of their state and political systems. For it is these features which have shaped the crisis of Fordism in each country and conditioned the form of transition to a post-Fordist accumulation regime.

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© 1989 M. Gottdiener and N. Komninos

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Jessop, B. (1989). Conservative Regimes and the Transition to Post-Fordism: The Cases of Great Britain and West Germany. In: Gottdiener, M., Komninos, N. (eds) Capitalist Development and Crisis Theory: Accumulation, Regulation and Spatial Restructuring. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19960-0_11

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