Вариант 18.

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Text. Growth and Development of a Capitalism

The similarities in the patterns of growth and development of the different economies, are of interest. In every developed capitalist economy, as levels of per capita incomes rose, there was an absolute (and relative) decline in employment in agriculture and an absolute (and relative) increase in employment in the service or tertiary sector. Employment patterns in industry followed a different path.

From relatively low per capita incomes (for developed capitalist countries), relative and absolute employment in industry rose. After higher levels of per capita incomes were realized (those attained in most economies by the mid-1960s), employment in industry as a share of total employment began to drop off. In contrast, in absolute terms employment in industry rose continuously in the majority of the developed capitalist economies until the early 1970s, when stagnation set in.

A simple way of characterizing this process of growth and development in the postwar period is to envisage a situation of high rates of growth of productivity and low rates of growth of demand in agriculture interacting to release labor for industry and the service sector. The high rates of business investment mentioned earlier enabled the expanded labor force in the nonagricultural sectors to be equipped with the most productive capital plant and equi pment available. This was especially so for those economies starting from relatively low levels of per capita incomes, since these economies were in a position to borrow the most advanced technology from the high-income economies. Thus, an outstanding characteristic of the Japanese postwar modernization process was the widespread purchases of licenses from the United States of process technologies. These required modifications and adaptation to suit the Japanese needs, to be sure, but Japanese industrialists (and others) clearly were able to skip some of the research and development stages involved in implementing a technology and thereby reduce costs of production. These industrialists were also in a better position to borrow and install only the best technologies available. As a result of these and other factors, the period from the early 1950s to the early 1970s saw a strong tendency for countries with relatively low levels of per capita income at the beginning of the period to grow relatively rapidly. For all the developed capitalist economies, the same period marked (in terms of its duration and pervasiveness) capitalism's greatest boom in history.

The period since the early 1970s has been termed a period of «stagflation» for capitalism, characterized by stagnation (slow growth, low investment, and high unemployment] together with inflation. Growth rates [and inflation rates] have continued to diverge from one country to the next during the current period, but there has been a general scaling-down of the pace of growth and development in all the developed capitalist economies. The primary factor involved in the collapse of the worldwide postwar boom has been a fear of inflation engendered by an acceleration in the rate of inflation beginning in the late 1960s and lasting into the mid-1970s. The response of governments to inflation in the majority of the capitalist economies has been to pursue anti-inflationary demand policies coupled at times with some form of incomes policy. This approach has led to higher rates of unemployment and lower rates of profits and utilization of capital by business. The latter has definitely depressed business investment and has contributed to the decline in growth rates. Whether such recession-induced anti-inflationary policies will work eventually is still a matter of heated discussions among economists. If the policies do not work and if efforts by governments to restore prosperity through stimulate aggregate demand policies accelerate inflation rates, one of two

responses is government

likely. Either new forms of increased intervention will occur or the authorities Will choose to restrict aggregate demand and maintain high rates of unemployment on a long-run basis in order to contain inflation. In either case, an entirely new concept defining the essential features of capitalism will become appropriate.