In this book, Mazzucato makes the argument that the state is
the best actor to be the one to make long-range investments in technology, as
private actors under capitalism are too focused on short term rewards to really
be able to focus on real blue ocean development.
In fact, she argues, some of the more celebrated examples of
private innovation can be linked to research and investment the state has made.
This process of celebrating the private corporation has a way of erasing what
the state has done and allows political rhetoric to attack research the state
does. Her best example in the book is the Apple iPhone, where she looks at the
basic research from the internet to mobile telephony to interface design that
goes back to work governments did starting thirty or more years ago. I think as
a reader that this example is strong enough to support her basic argument, but
she also continues in the book to look at solar power as another example.
Because this isn’t as widespread as the iPhone and its clones, it feels like a
weaker example, even if down the road it will be more prevalent than the
iPhone.
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