Building the Next American Century: The Past and Future of American Economic Competitiveness (Woodrow Wilson Center Press) [Paperback]

Kent H. Hughes (Author)

Book Description

Series: Woodrow Wilson Center Press | Publication Date: February 9, 2005

Collaboration between the public and private sectors helped the U.S. economy recover from its last period of economic malaise, and similar collaboration is needed today, according to a key participant in the 1980s–1990s competitiveness movement. In Building the Next American Century, Kent H. Hughes describes that movement, beginning with the conditions that stimulated it: stagflation in the early 1970s, declines in manufactured exports, and challenges from German and Japanese manufacturers. The United States responded with monetary and fiscal reform, technological innovation, and formation of a culture of lifelong learning. Although a great deal of leadership came from government, a new sense of partnership with the private sector and its leaders was crucial. Hughes attributes much of the national prosperity of the late 1990s to contributions from the private sectors. Hughes argues that a twenty-first-century competitiveness strategy with a system-wide approach to innovation, learning, and global engagement can meet today's challenges, even in the demanding environment shaped by national security concerns after 9/11.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Essential reading for anyone interested in how the United States can maintain high living standards in a hyper-competitive world economy. Hughes has provided the essential context—past, present, and future—for the major policy debates of this decade. He has superbly described not just the challenges America faces, but also the opportunities ahead if the right choices are made.

(Jeffrey E. Garten, dean of the Yale School of Management and former Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade in the first Clinton administration 2005)

The United States experienced two decades of deep anxiety over its national competitiveness from the early 1970s into the 1990s, with profound effects on both policy and perceptions. This new book provides a superb description and analysis of that key period and applies its lessons to America's position in the world economy of the twenty-first century.

(C. Fred Bergsten, Director, Institute for International Economics 2005)

Kent Hughes has written exactly the right book at exactly the right time. America today faces fundamental questions about its ability to compete and to maintain the American dream for its citizens. Today's leaders would do well to read this book.

(Clyde Prestowitz, President, Economic Strategy Institute )

To fashion our response to the latest economic challenges from China and India, we need to know what we did in the early 1980s, when we faced tough competition from Japan and Germany. With Kent Hughes's book, we can avoid spinning our wheels on issues that already have been thoroughly vetted. I have proposed that we create a new commission on competitiveness. Kent's book explains what we learned from the first one—the Young Commission—and provides a superb grounding.

(Senator Joseph I. Lieberman )

Given his personal involvement in this subject in key government and private sector roles, Kent is qualified uniquely, not only to put this subject in historical context, but also to take us forward, as he does with six broad and important recommendations to strengthen our American innovation system. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in American competitiveness, and that should be all of us.

(George M. C. Fisher, retired Chairman and CEO, Eastman Kodak Company )

Will interest readers as much for its treatment of the dynamics of Washington policymaking as for its approach to the main topic.

(Richard N. Cooper Foreign Affairs )

A wide-ranging, in-depth account of national and international economic policy in the US during the post-WWII period. Highly recommended.

(Choice )

About the Author

Kent H. Hughes, trained as both an economist and a lawyer, worked on economic ideas, publications, and legislation as a congressional staffer and participant in several presidential campaigns. He was president of the Council in Competitiveness and served as associate deputy secretary of Commerce during the Clinton administration. He is currently director of the Program on America and the Global Economy at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (February 9, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801882036
• ISBN-13: 978-0801882036
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,379,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hughes' American Model, July 3, 2005

By 

John Hardt - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Building the Next American Century: The Past and Future of American Economic Competitiveness (Woodrow Wilson Center Press) (Paperback)

Hughes' American Model, July 3, 2005


Kent Hughes has an optimistic and realistic vision of the economic future of the United States. His optimism is rooted in confidence that future leadership will return to the bipartisan American model of the last two decades of the twentieth century. This American model for generating competitiveness was keyed to the adoption of advanced technology under a government/private partnership accompanied by fiscal and financial conservatism. Hughes' optimism may be realistic if future leadership and the country as a whole respond to current crises with the kind of shared risks and benefits approach that was evident in meeting the crises of WWII and the last two decades of the twentieth century.

Hughes provides chapter and verse in the development and success of the bipartisan American model of the Reagan/Bush/Clinton years. A Time Line appendix details the legislation and policies that underpinned the development of the American model. In 1980, Congressman Gilles Long, leading the Democratic Caucus, provided political support for a technology-based competitiveness policy. The Young Commission on Industrial Competition under President Reagan broadened and accentuated this policy. Alan Bromley, Science Advisor in the first Bush administration, was a key figure in continuing the competitiveness policy featuring emphasis on critical technologies. In the Clinton years, the bipartisan competitiveness policy was enhanced by deeper government/private-sector partnerships in technological development, by reduction of trade barriers, and by adoption of conservative fiscal and financial policies.

In the second Bush administration, new crises in security, fiscal, financial and energy policies have emerged. Hughes is optimistic that a return of a bipartisan American model stressing both efficiency and equity is possible and could be effective. Essential to reviving this American model is acceptance of a broad policy of shared risks and benefits. Those who live in the "City on the Hill" must share their benefits with the less powerful in order to spur competitiveness. Hughes finds improvement in efficiency and equity are both essential to the success of the American model. In this, Hughes taps into a strong theme in western philosophy - the Augustinian view that a universal and equitable society is necessary to assure progress.

John Hardt
Senior Scholar at National Council for Eurasian and Eastern European Research
Adjunct Professor of Economics, George Washington University






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