Global Competitiveness Rhetorical Analysis

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The idea of “national competitiveness” has been a central theme of national policy considerations for much time, and even today arguments addressing a nation’s competitiveness flourish, bolstered by national competitiveness councils and rankings such as the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index (Cerny 2007). US President Bill Clinton expressed the rhetoric of competitiveness whereby each nation is “like a big corporation competing in the global marketplace” and this has become a persistent understanding amongst leaders globally (Krugman 1994). Despite the significant role the rhetoric of competitiveness has played in informing government policy debates; it is a misunderstood concept that lacks clarification in its definition …show more content…

A major criticism of competitiveness literature is the lack of accurate real-world data, a point Krugman himself discusses in his article. Krugman destructs common claims for competitiveness by comparing their analyses with empirical figures that contrast their claims. This method of critique successfully questions the credibility of the commonplace competitiveness rhetoric. However the measure of competitiveness as chosen by Krugman, and his failure to consider other approaches posits some hope for the competitiveness argument, as will be discussed further …show more content…

Firstly Hay identifies the possible dangers seen by authors like Krugman as intrinsic in the appeal to the model of competitiveness; the he revises and extends Krugman’s model to consider trade in relation to more complex goods; and finally Hay explores the implications of this in our understanding of competitiveness in service markets (Hay 2012). Hay argues that the competitiveness discourse of today is not predicated on a zero-sum notion of competition amid nations and is not the pretext for protectionism but conversely the elimination of trade barriers. If they ever did view competition between states as analogous to that of firms, policy makers no longer hold this view according to Hay. But they have yet to realise the hazards of viewing the dynamics of competition in all markets for goods and services as analogous to that for cheap consumer goods. Until this danger is realised, Hay claims the European social model is in serious danger, as cost competitiveness threatens to become “a dangerously obsessive compulsion” (Hay

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