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IN THE LAST TWO DECADES, THE SPLIT BETWEEN A REPUBLICAN-LED EXECUTIVE BRANCH AND A DEMOCRATIC-LED CONGRESS HAS PUT A HIGH POLISH ON THE INTRINSIC ANTAGONISM BETWEEN THE STATE DEPARTMENT AND CONGRESS. THE UNITED STATES MAY NOT HAVE MINISTERIAL GOVERNMENT DE JURE, BUT IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS IT MOVES CLOSER TO THIS STATUS EACH YEAR AS CONGRESSIONAL ACTORS INSIST ON A ROLE.

This article sets the broad facts of the industrial performance of the UK in the post-war period within a European context. Using purchasing power parity rates the relative levels of labour productivity between countries are compared, for GDP, manufacturing and six sub-sectors of manufacturing. By 1973 the UK had the lowest level amongst the countries studied. Growth rates of output, employment and labour productivity are estimated for four periods since 1955 and the relatively slow growth rates in the UK are analysed.

This article traces the development in the British gas industry of pressures to innovate and of the industry's response, not in any great depth but as an illustration of the complexities of the innovation process and of the variety of factors which may typically be involved in bringing it to fruition. Innovation occurs within a given system; in order to understand why it occurred and the reasons for its success or failure it is important to observe the working of the system as a whole, the connections between the industry concerned and other sectors of the economy and the factors which encouraged or delayed innovative activity.