To its credit, as a way to manage government in the areas where government works best, industrial strategy brings sensible ideas to bear. Starting with a pressing challenge such as halving a country’s emissions by 2035, the task is broken down into specific “missions” with broad but measurable goals and the country’s relevant players are brought on board.
Despite all the white elephants that dot today’s world as a reminder of industrial policy’s past failures, governments are again pursuing subsidies, regulation and protectionism to ensure that their economies’ commanding heights are occupied by domestic firms creating domestic jobs.
Invoking the success of the US moon mission in the 1960s, the new evangelists of industrial policy, with even grander ambitions in mind, have rebranded it as an industrial strategy.
