From catch-up to deindustrialisation: Britain and Germany in comparative perspective

This paper explains the divergent trajectories of British and German manufacturing since the late nineteenth century by analysing the interaction between world-historical transformations in the labour process and the institutional mechanisms through which national economies reproduce labour-power. It argues that long-run differences in productivity growth, skill formation, and industrial performance are not autonomous outcomes of policy or institutional choice, but expressions of historically specific systems of labour-force reproduction shaped by the changing requirements of capital accumulation. Across three technological paradigms—Taylorism, Fordism, and post-Fordist electronics-based automation—transformations in the technical division of labour reconfigured the skill requirements and wage structures necessary for the profitable adoption of new technologies. Germany’s earlier and more consistent reorganisation of production around mechanisation and intermediate technical skills generated stronger incentives for capital deepening, supporting productivity catch-up and sustained industrial expansion. In Britain, the persistence of a more homogeneous labour force and the tax-funded provision of key elements of labour-power reproduction reduced the relative cost of labour-power and weakened incentives for mechanisation, contributing to relative decline during the Fordist era. The transition to post-Fordism induced restructuring in both cases, but along historically conditioned trajectories. The paper concludes that national institutions are best understood as historically specific mechanisms through which labour-power is reproduced and labour-process transformations are mediated, rather than as independent determinants of economic outcomes.