Concorde and Dissent: Explaining High Technology Project Failures in Britain and France

by Elliot J. Feldman

Overview

This book is a study of the joint British and French construction of Concorde, and their separate projects to build new international airports in London (the repeatedly abandoned third airport) and Paris (Charles de Gaulle). Conventional explanations of these projects, all of which can be seen as 'failures' in some sense, contrast French professional and rational planning expertise with the amateurishness of the British. Professor Feldman challenges such stereotypes, arguing instead that policy failures in the two countries can be explained in terms of political instability. His book is unique in developing such detailed, controlled case studies for the comparison of political systems, and offers new insights into public policy-making in Britain and France.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521108263
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/09/2009
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; 1. Compare or contrast? Britain, France and civil aviation; 2. The Parisian white elephant; 3. The imperial white elephant hunt; 4. The albatross; 5. Political instability and high technology; Epilogue; Methodological appendix: comparative politics and case studies; Notes; Select bibliography; Index.