The Entrepreneurial State : Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths

The Entrepreneurial State : Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths
ISBN: 9781610396134
Publication Date: 27 October 2015

Companies like Google and Apple heralded the information revolution, and opened the doors for Silicon Valley to grow into an engine of dazzling technological development, that today champions the free market that engendered it against the supposedly stifling encroachment of government regulation. But is that really the case? In this sharp and controversial expose,The Entrepreneurial State, Mariana Mazzucato debunks the pervasive myth that the state is a laggard, bureaucratic apparatus at odds with a dynamic private sector. Instead she reveals in case study after case study that, in fact, the opposite is true: the state is our boldest and most valuable innovator.

The technology revolution would never have happened without support from the US Government. The breakthroughsGPS, touch-screen displays, the Internet, and voice-activated AIthat enabled legendary Apple products to be smart successes were, in fact, all developed with support from the state. Mazzucato reveals that many successful entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs integrated state-funded technological developments into their products and then reaped the rewards themselves. The algorithm behind Google's search engine was initially sponsored by NASA. And 75% of NMEsnew, often-ground-breaking drugs not derivative of existing substancestrace their research to National Institutes of Health (NIH) labs. The American government, it turns out, has been enormously successfully at stimulating scientific and technological advancement.

But by 2009, just some months following the Great Recessionthe US government, constrained by austerity measures, started disinvesting from its holdings in research fields like health, energy, electronics. The trend is likely to continue, and the repercussions of these policies could wreak havoc on o...