Study On The Governance Of British Depression (1928-1988)

The first Industrial Revolution promoted the Great Britain being the first industrialized country. In this process, the north region of Britain had relied on their advantage in natural resources and developed a specialized production in the textile, steel, shipbuilding, and coal industry. However, as the gradually declined status of coal in the world energy structure, intensified international competition and improvement of technique, the traditional industry in these regions gradually felled down and became the Depressed Areas. Ever since, the geographical scope in the Depressed Areas changes as the country’s economic situation and regional economic conditions. However, the difficulty the have faced was similar, that is the narrow scope of economic activity, single economic structure, declined dominant industry, unskilled labor force, a large number of unemployed people and poor infrastructure. In order to solve these difficulties in the Depressed Areas, the British government managed by enacting a series of policy and regulation. Therefore, Britain became the earliest country to govern the difficult regional problems.In order to adapt to the change of the global economy and the overall economic situation, British government abolished the Regional Development Grants in 1988, which marked the end of traditional governance policy based on region. And Britain came into the period of City Policy in the range of the whole country.In addition to the introduction, this thesis will discuss the main issue in the following four parts:The first part will define the geographical scope and reason in the Depressed Areas, which in a dynamic state. It is helpful for us to grasp the whole range of the Depressed Areas and understand the changes in governance policy better. The paper will analyze its formed reasons from the perspectives of history factor, industrial structure and the change of market and technology, which will help us understand Depressed Areas comprehensively.The second part introduces the traditional governance policy, which divides into two sections.In the first section, we will discuss the governance policy from before and the end of the World War II to the period of Mrs. Thatcher came to power respectively. The pre-war policy will be interpreted from five aspects, namely labor migration, establishment of industrial trading estate, implementation of tax inducements, providing financial assistance and publishing Barlow Report. According to the different governance stringency of policy implementation, the post-war period is divided into four periods:1.1945-1951:the period of strict implement policy; 2.1951-1960:the period of weak traditional governance policy; 3.1960-1970:the golden age of traditional governance policy; 4.1970-1978:the adjustment period of traditional governance policy. But no matter how the degree of implementation, it encourages enterprises migrate to the Depressed Areas and limits the over-expansion of prosperous regions, which formed the two main lines of this period. With the change of the economic situation, it appears some new changes:the service industries begin to attain the assistance, shift to the urban policy and take advantage of the regional policy of European Economic Community for the first time.The third part introduces the transformation of governance policies. In order to adapt to change of the global economy and Britain overall economic situation, the British government cancelled the Regional Development Grants in 1988, which marked the end of traditional governance policy based on the whole nation. And from then on, Britain came into the period of City Policy in the range of the whole country. This part will be systematically elaborated in two aspects, including the end of traditional governance policy and the governance of Depressed Areas under the regional policy of EEC.The fourth part carries on the appraisal to the governance policies. Based on previous interpretation and the data analysis, this paper will analyze the changes in the unemployment rate, the upgrade of the industrial structure and improvement of infrastructure, so that an objective evaluation about the effect of governance policy can be provided.Finally, the conclusion part summarizes the successful experience and lessons of British government managing Depressed Areas, and provides some references for revitalizing the old industrial base of the northeast in China.