Fordism
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Fordism is a "form of production" or "production paradigm" that prevailed in post-war decades (and perhaps even before second world war) in western industrial countries. It consisted of domestic mass production and stabilizing economic policies that provided national demand and social stability by paying relatively high wages and various other economic policies. Fordism is related to keynesianism and also taylorism.
The history of "fordism" goes back to Henry Ford, who significantly improved mass production methods and developed (with several employees) the assembly line method of manufacturing early in the 20th century. Ford Motor Company taught English and skills to the workers who immigrated from South or East Europe based on this idea.
The social scientific concept of "Fordism" was introduced by French regulation school, sometimes known as regulation theory, which is a Marxist-influenced strand of political economy. According to regulation school, capitalist production paradigms are born from the crisis of the previous paradigm; a newborn paradigm is also disposed to fall into crisis sooner or later. The crisis of fordism became apparent in late 1960s (see below).
Regulation theory talks of Regimes of Capital Accumulation (ROA) and Modes of Regulation (MOR). ROAs are periods of relatively settled economic growth and profit across a nation or global region. Such regimes eventually become exhausted, falling into crisis, and are torn down as capitalism seeks to remake itself and return to a period of profit. These periods of capital accumulation are 'underpinned', or stabilised, by MOR. A plethora of laws, institutions, social mores, customs and hegemonies both national and international work together to create the environment for long run capitalist profit.
Fordism is a tag used to characterise the post WWII (and in some case arguably pre war) long boom experienced by western nations. It is typified by a cycle of mass production and mass consumption, the production of standardised (most often) consumer items to be sold in (typically) protected domestic markets. Whilst the standard pattern is post war America national variations to this standard norm is noted. Regulation theory talks of National Modes of Growth to denote different varieties of fordism across western economies.
Fordism as a ROA broke down, dependant on national experiences, somewhere between the late 1960s and the mid 1970s. Western economies experienced slow or nil economic growth, rising inflation and growing unemployment. The period after Fordism has been termed Post-Fordist and Neo-Fordist. The former implies that global capitalism has made a clean break from Fordism (including overcoming its inconsistencies) whilst the latter that elements of the fordist ROA continued to exist. The Regulation School preferred the term After-Fordism (or the french Apres-Fordism) to denote that what comes after fordism was/is not yet clear.
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Fordism and the Soviet Union
Historian Thomas Hughes (Hughes 2004) has detailed the way in which the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s enthusiastically embraced Fordism and Taylorism, importing American experts in both fields as well as American engineering firms to build parts of its new industrial infrastructure. The concepts of the Five Year Plan and the centrally planned economy can be traced directly to the influence of Taylorism on Soviet thinking. Hughes quotes Lenin:
- American efficiency is that indomitable force which neither knows nor recognises obstacles; which continues on a task once started until it is finished, even if it is a minor task; and without which serious constructive work is impossible . . . Th combination of the Russian revolutionary sweep with American efficiency is the essence of Leninism. (Hughes 2004, 251)
Hughes describes how, as the Soviet Union developed and grew in power both sides, the Soviets and the Americans, chose to ignore or deny the contribution that American ideas and expertise had had, the Soviets because they wished to portray themselves as creators of their own destiny and not indebted to a rival and the Americans because they did not wish to acknowledge their part in creating a powerful rival.
Other meanings
The concept may also refer to some of Ford's idiosyncratic social views:
- It may refer to the idea of paying workers enough to enable them to purchase the product they create.
- It may also be applied to the fictional religion-like ideology described in Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World.
- It often describes the paternalistic "taking care of the worker" - a "family-like" mentality seen first in the auto-industry (Ford). The paternalism could be kindly (providing benefits) or restrictive (for example, Ford discouraged smoking even off premises).
Post-Fordism
In Ford's time, laborers were relatively unskilled, but they could form unions and these labor unions became very strong because capital was not so fluid.
Most employees in the fordist structure were able to purchase the product they produced - which is in sharp contrast to current third world countries and their production strategies.
Once capital became more fluid globally in late 1960s and early 1970s, the world entered the "Post-Fordism" era - in which deindustrialization took place on the global scale. This deindustrialization is seen in the withdrawal of 11 automobile plants from Flint, Michigan, and the opening of 11 new automobile plants in Mexico. Fordism and globalization are seen as incompatible.
References
Hughes, Thomas P. 2004. American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm 1870-1970. 2nd ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
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