When Small States Make Big Leaps

Darius Ornston explains how several of Europe's technological laggards, in particular Denmark, Finland, and Ireland, managed to assume leading positions in new, high-tech industries: biotechnology, software, telecommunications equipment.

Darius Ornston is Assistant Professor of International Affairs at the University of Georgia.

At a moment when the West is confused on what to do next, Darius Ornston provides us with a remarkably detailed comparative account of the search for solutions to a previous crisis. He demonstrates how the coordinated market economies of Denmark and Finland, by making creative use of corporatism, could transform institutions and move from low- to high-tech societies during the 1990s. These lessons are highly significant for locating theoretically the sources of institutional and social innovation and the capability for searching for new phases of prosperity.

Wade Jacoby, Brigham Young University, author of Imitation and Politics: Redesigning Modern Germany:

When Small States Make Big Leaps is a first-rate book that adds substantially to debates on European political economy and corporatism. Darius Ornston argues that some small European states have invented a new 'creative' corporatism that turns economic pressure into targeted political pressures that both motivate and enable new kinds of tripartite deals to deliver supply-side benefits. Throughout, Ornston distinguishes among industrial policy, labor market policy, and developments in capital markets. I found this very enlightening and provocative.