Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: The German Model Under the Pressure of Globalisation

Abstract

In the German debate, the option of developing new spheres of growth through radical grass roots innovations is always tied up with the predominant objectives of ensuring international competitiveness for businesses and of maintaining the production base at home. As a rule there is no classification that could make new products and technologies 'viable in the future'. In the last analysis it is the market, with its 'ingenious ability for invention', that fosters innovation. Of course the plea for the creation of an 'innovation regime' in Germany, with modern products and technologies, comes with the rhetorical proviso that only what is 'ecologically sound' should be promoted: namely products that use fewer resources and produce fewer damaging chemicals. However, in view of the urgent need to reduce consumption of almost all resources by up to 90%, the concept of achieving 'sustainable growth' can itself no longer be sustained. What is necessary for the economy is a strategy of directed growth, selection and contraction. 'Sustainable development' will not be achieved merely by the adoption of ecologically high-tech industries: it demands a different economy, different laws and different consumer behaviour.