Ronald Dore

Goodwill and the Spirit of Market Capitalism

This article focuses on the predominance of obligated relational contracting in Japanese business. Consumer goods markets are highly competitive in Japan, but trade in intermediates, by contrast, is for the most part conducted within long-term trading relations in which goodwill give-and-take is expected to temper the pursuit of self-interest. Cultural preferences explain the unusual predominance of these relations in Japan, but they are in fact more common in Western economies than textbooks usually recognize. The growth of relational contracting in labour markets especially is, indeed, at the root of the rigidities supposedly responsible for contemporary stagflation. Japan shows that to sweep away these rigidities and give markets back their pristine vigor is not the only prescription for a cure of stagflation. The Japanese economy more than adequately compensates for the loss of allocative efficiency by achieving high levels of other kinds of efficiency. Relational contracts are just a way of trading off the short term loss involved in sacrificing a price advantage, against the insurance. As for relational contracting between enterprises, there are three things to be said. First, the relative security of such relations encourages investment in supplying firms. Second, the relationships of trust and mutual dependency make more for a rapid flow of information. Third, a by-product of the system is a general emphasis on quality.

The diploma disease : education, qualification and development

Schools used to be for educating people, for developing minds and characters. Today, as jobs depend more and more on certificates, degrees and diplomas, schooling has become more and more a ritualized process of qualification-earning. Professor Dore traces the underlying causes of this change through the educational histories of Britain, Japan, Sri Lanka and Kenya, showing how the late development effect makes what is a worrying problem for the rich countries in the North a disaster for the poorer countries of the South.

The Japanese firm : the sources of competitive strength

Masahiko Aoki and Ronald Dore have edited an authoritative account of the Japanese firm and the sources of its success, including contributions from some of the best, and best known, scholars in the field. The book represents an attempt to explain and understand aspects of the firm in the Japanese economic system, and to explain the corporate success of Japan. It is interdisciplinary in approach, containing both theoretical and empirical work, and has contributions from the fields of labour economics, comparative institutional analysis, information economics, finance, organizational theory, economic history, political science, and sociology. Chapters range from contemporary descriptions--of training (in overseas subsidiaries as well as Japan), of R&D structures, of product development practices, of finance and corporate governance, of trading relations, especially between small and large firms--to an historical overview of the evolution of Japanese management in the wartime planned economy. The book also situates Japan in the literature of economic analysis and in the on-going debate about trade-offs between equality and efficiency. The contemporary media would have us believe that the Japanese system of management--characterized by lifetime employment, emphasis on long-term, slow consensual decision-making, heavy investments in training, R&D, and quality, close inter-enterprise ties, and short rations for shareholders--is in crisis and about to change fundamentally. This book will enable the reader to decide just how solid the foundations of the Japanese enterprise system are, and to identify the rationale that lies behind it.

Flexible Rigidities: Industrial Policy and Structural Adjustment in the Japanese Economy, 1970-80.

ILO pub-WEP pub. Working paper on structural change and industrial policy trends from 1970-1980 in Japan - discusses adjustment to petroleum price increases and inflation, competition, changing occupational structure and trade structure, role of workers, trade unions and entrepreneurs (incl. Production diversification, monopolys, subcontracting and foreign investment); provides evaluation of labour policy, fiscal policy and monetary policy; includes case studies of the textile industry and electronics industry. Bibliography.

Function and Cause

the early years of the century. Individual psychology has taught much, but now we perceive evidence that an important part of the relevant causation of abilities is essentially sociological in nature, and that control is most likely to come through penetration of this aspect of the subject. Research in the sociology of collective ability thus promises to give us an unmatched opportunity to apply advanced techniques of discovery to a matter of critical human importance. Men of wealth, position, and responsibility wishing to provide security for their children, find that there is actually no way of having absolute assurance that a fortune can survive. Currency can fluctuate in value and deteriorate through war and inflation. Gold and diamonds have arbitrary worth which can vanish with economic disorganization. Land can be taxed away or confiscated by agrarian reformers. No kind of material wealth is more secure than the social organization which stands back of it. The most favorable chance of survival, therefore, eventually goes to persons of highest general ability and wisdom who can deal with problems of complexity in a time of change. Effective intelligence, then, is a richer legacy than acres of diamonds, not only to the heirs of a tycoon, but also to the posterity of a nation. To learn how to expand the heritage of collective intelligence would create the best legacy we could leave to the children of our children.

Technological Self-reliance: Sturdy Ideal or Self-serving Rhetoric

For the purposes of this paper, words are used as follows: Transfer of technology By ‘transfer of technology to developing countries’ I understand ‘getting knowledge that is only in some foreigners’ heads into the heads of one’s own nationals’. The learning process may well be largely accomplished by buying and studying some piece of imported capital equipment in which the new knowledge is embodied, as when the Japanese government bought its first Jacquard loom, and had its craftsmen dismantle and assemble it time after time until they had learned its technology and could then begin to think about devising or buying or stealing the technology of making it. And nowadays it may be a sensible shortcut to import both machine and its original devisers in some form of joint venture. But it is entirely possible for technology to be transferred as blueprints or as images in someone’s head.

Agricultural Improvement in Japan: 1870-1900

Not the least remarkable feature of Japans economic development in the nineteenth century is the way in which the growth of industry was matched by an increase in the productive capacity of agriculture. If industrial investment was largely financed out of the surplus produced by agriculture, this was not, at least, a process of mere spoliation. Agriculture was not entirely starved of capital, nor did the policy emphasis on industrial development mean that the task of increasing the productivity of agriculture was neglected. The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the mechanisms by which this improvement was achieved; the way in which new methods, tools and crop strains were evolved and diffused; the agents of, and the motives for, research and experiment; the channels of communication and the incentives for application. Following the general theme of these papers one concern will be to assess how far the improvement was self-generated within agriculture, and how far the stimulus came from the urban centers of commerce, industry and governmental authority.

Japanese rural fertility; some social and economic factors

Summary The paper sets out to examine some of the attitudes and family institutions affecting the fertility of the Japanese farming population and to indicate the nature of recent changes. First, factors affecting age at marriage are examined, with the conclusion that the trend toward later marriage may continue. Secondly, in a consideration of the background of the traditional large-family ideal, it is concluded that while the duty of securing an heir is still unquestioned, and a high value is still placed on a large family as a source of emotional satisfaction, prestige and security in old age, the decline in child mortality, the effects of rural overpopulation, and the growth of educational obligations and opportunities are tending to undermine the large-family ideal. Thirdly, evidence is quoted of an increasing desire to limit families and of the lack of any ideological barriers to limitation. In a brief indication of recent trends the tendency for the greatest decline in fertility to take place among...

Corporatism and accountability : organized interests in British public life

Whatever happened to corporatism?, Colin Crouch and Ronald Dore Japan - a nation made for corporatism?, Ronald Dore corporatism and accountability - the democratic dilemma, Norman Lewis regulating Britain, regulating America - corporatism and the securities industry, Michael Moral the engineering profession - from self-regulation to state-sponsored collaboration, Martin Laffin corporatist interest intermediation - goverment-building society relations in the UK, Martin Boddy and Christine Lamber agricultural regulation and the politics of milk production , Graham Cox et al the MSCs Area Manpower Boards - the role of employer and union representatives, Roger King and Kris Schnack tripartite industrial training systems - a comparative study, Andrew Erridge and Michael Connolly cleavage and concertation - the limits of a corporatist analysis of the Scottish political economy, Chris Moore and Simon Booth.

The Meiji Landlord: Good or Bad?

It seems impossible anywhere in this century of the common man for history to remain a mere matter of recording and analysing the deeds of uncommon men. The most traditional of historians finds himself obliged to assess not only the influence exerted on the course of events by individual statesmen and generals, but also the collective influence of the wishes, the fears, the interests, or the prejudices of large numbers of anonymous individuals, grouped generally, for purposes of convenience, under such rubrics as “the urban middle classes,” “the city,” “the workers,” “the farmers,” “the discontented intellectuals,” or “the electorate.” Sometimes the statistical implications of such terms are recognised, as by the English Namierites, in the use of openly statistical methods of approach. Other historians use less tedious, and it must be admitted less convincing, means of summation. In any case, the business of writing history has become more complicated. The purpose of this paper is to give some account of the treatment Japanese historians have afforded one such large category of individuals who can no longer be ignored in recounting the history of Meiji Japan, namely “the landlords.”