VARIETY OF PATTERN OF THE POST-FORDIST ECONOMY - WHY ARE THE OLD TIMES STILL WITH US AND THE NEW TIMES YET TO COME

Despite the complex changes which the economies of the most industrial ized countries have undergone, current interpretations of the evolutio n of the economic system remain extraordinarily simplistic. The popula r view has been that 'Fordism', at the heart of the continued developm ent of the capitalist world since World War II, is no longer the drivi ng force of the economy. This article challenges the all too simplisti c view of the 'old' and 'new' times thesis, arguing that transformatio ns occurring in the post-Fordist societies incorporate elements of the old system. On the contrary, in many cases old and new ave blurred to gether. The article discusses the features of a variety of models of t he post-Fordist economy, in terms of the 'governance' of different pro duction systems where a massive debureaucratization of work is occurri ng, together with the globalization of local economic systems. Copyrig ht (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd