Industrial Efficiency and State Intervention

In "Industrial Efficiency and State Intervention," Nick Tiratsoo and Jim Tomlinson describe and assess the British Labour Party's attempts to improve industrial efficiency from 1945 to 1951. The authors concentrate on the debates and initiatives of the wartime period and the subsequent policies implemented under the Attlee government.
The authors modify existing historiography about the period, showing that the Labour Party of 1945-51 was concerned mainly with industrial modernization and not with the creation of the Welfare State. Within this context, they present a re-evaluation of wider theories about Britain's economic decline. The authors argue that Britain's lack of a "developmental state" can only be explained through a consideration of its political parties and the context in which they operated.