Industrial Policy: Towards New Interpretation

The paper discusses the issues of correct rendering of the concept “industrial policy” and juxtaposes its different interpretations. Assuming that governments are organisations concentrating valuable volumes of resources, and drastically affecting economic processes, the author provides a new interpretation of industrial policy. From the author's viewpoint, government's representations of good economy and desirable structural parameters of it underlie any state industrial policy. Such interpretation excludes the necessity to justify industrial policy by referring to market failures, coordination failures, etc. In connection with this, the paper analyses and contrasts the citizens, politicians, and academics' notions of good economy. The final part of the paper formulates the conclusions for researchers based on the suggested approach.