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British Foreign Policy and Stagnation

Stephen Blank

• The Conference Board, New York

“Britain: The Politics of Foreign Economic Policy, the Domestic Economy and the Problem of Pluralistic Stagnation.” International Organization 31 (Autumn 1977): 673–721.

How did British international ambition and domestic regulatory policies engender the economic stagnation that England has experienced in the post-World War II period?

The author contends that the failure of the British economy was due primarily to efforts by successive British governments to maintain an international role beyond the nation's capabilities. When combined with a determination to maintain the external strength of the British sterling, this policy resulted, after 1967, in heightened domestic social conflict and in the politicization of economic policy. Poor economic performance resulted in the post-war years.

Britain suffered from its military and foreign aid expenditures abroad. The author concentrates on the efforts by the government to maintain the existing exchange rate, and appears to favor an inflationary domestic economic policy combined with a willingness by the government to allow the value of the currency to fluctuate on the international exchange.