Skill-Biased Policy Change: Governing the Transition to the Knowledge Economy in Germany, Sweden and Britain

Abstract

How have advanced capitalist democracies transitioned from a Fordist to a post-Fordist, knowledge-based economy? And why have they followed seemingly similar policy trajectories despite different economic models and sectoral specializations? We develop the notion of skill-biased policy change to answer these questions. Drawing on a distinction between valence and partisan issues in the transition to the knowledge economy, we highlight the partisan and business group politics underpinning different policy areas to argue that policies that create or mobilize high-level skills attract relatively broader consensus across political parties and business groups than protective labor market policies targeted at the lower end of the skills distribution. The argument is illustrated through case studies of Germany, Sweden, and the UK—three countries that have transitioned to a knowledge-based economy but that have done so by relying on markedly different sectoral specializations.