Política de promoción y reconversión industrial

This article looks back at the development of policies for the promotion of industry in the Basque Country, taking into account the social and economic situation at each relevant time and the manner in which current policy measures are conditioned by past events. To that end, it begins with a brief explanation of the theoretical foundations of the type of policy concerned, in the context of the Basque economy. It goes on to describe the various stages of industrial policy: recession and the restructuring of industry in the 1980s, an approach based on competitiveness and clustering in the 1990s, strategies pursuing a «Great Transformation» from 2000 onwards and, with the great recession in place, a deployment for the future of the transformation of the Basque Country in terms of competitiveness in the framework of a new plan since 2009. Section Three presents a critical analysis and highlights the lessons learned for future industrial policies.