Adjustments in US Science and Technology Development Policy Under President Bill Clinton 1993-2001

In that context, what strategic trends does the United States have to deal with it?

The world context and the new development of capitalism in the early 90s posed many opportunities and challenges for the US, significantly affecting the policies in general and the S&T policy in particular of this country because S&T is a key factor for the development of each nation. If the power of S&T is not utilized, it will be difficult to keep up with the development trend of the world as well as establish one's position in the international arena.

1.2.2 Domestic situation

The 1990s was a period of strategic transition, an important turning point between the 20th and 21st centuries. The major countries were both building up their forces and experimenting and exploring new things with their own ambitions. Although the US was still a superpower in the capitalist world with overwhelming advantages in all economic and political fields, the world situation at the end of the 20th century was far different from the end of the 19th century. The US's power was not absolute but faced strong competition from Western Europe, Japan and other major powers. In addition, the US itself faced many difficulties when entering the last decade of the 20th century.

After a period of peak development before and after World War II, the US economy began to face a series of difficult problems in the late 1960s. These problems gradually increased in severity and became more serious, even creating an economic crisis in the 1970s - 1980s and lasting until the early 1990s. People began to debate the future of the US economy and doubt its hegemonic status. These problems have troubled the American authorities as well as the American people - that is, the economic structural crisis, the persistent trade deficit, the increasing budget deficit and foreign debt, and increasing unemployment...

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Economic structure has many shortcomings

After a period of development, the US economic structure revealed many shortcomings in the 80s and 90s of the 20th century. That is, economic sectors gradually lost the ability to expand, even the ability to maintain the previous scale. The market share of many sectors gradually decreased, the capacity of factories became increasingly redundant. Many enterprises were sold to foreign countries. The reduction in production scale, even the closure of many enterprises led to mass unemployment, or the shift of many professional, high-wage workers to increasingly low-wage service jobs.

The most typical manifestation is the rapid decline in the proportion of the manufacturing industry in the US economy. If in 1960, the manufacturing industry accounted for 28.0% of GDP, then by 1970 it had dropped to 24.8%, in 1980 it was 18.7%, in 1985 it was 18.9% and in 1991 it was only 17.9% [28; p.15]. Thus, after three decades, the proportion of the manufacturing industry has decreased by nearly half.

The textile and ferrous industries were important sectors of the American industry in the 1950s and 1960s, but by the 1970s they had declined dramatically. Other economic sectors, although not in such dire straits as the above, had to struggle against foreign competitors to maintain their market share.

The automobile industry, which was the pride of the United States, also suffered a serious decline. In 1988, the auto factories of the three largest American automobile manufacturers (General Motor, Ford, Chrysler) produced 11.2 million cars, of which 7.1 million were passenger cars. By 1991, the factories of these three companies had to reduce production to 8.8 million cars, of which 5.4 million were passenger cars. Also in this year, Japanese companies produced 13.3 million cars, of which 9.8 million were passenger cars. In the early 1990s, American auto factories were only using about 60 - 65% of their capacity [25; p.5]. The decline of the American auto industry was not only due to the labor productivity of

This industry is lower than Japan's, but also because some criteria showing superiority such as convenience, safety and economy of American cars are lower than Japanese cars.

Simultaneously with the decline of many civilian manufacturing industries was the overcapacity of military industries. World War II and the subsequent Cold War, along with the huge expenditure on defense, created fertile ground for the development of the US military industries. When the Cold War ended, and due to the complexity of many problems such as budget deficits and unemployment, the military industries were finally deprived of their development priority and had to give way to the development of civilian industries. The US aviation, missile and space industry, which used to be very strong, declined in the early 1990s due to cuts in government military spending. During this time, many other weapons production programs were delayed. Due to the sudden drop in demand for various types of weapons and cuts in defense spending, many military industries had a huge overcapacity.

Persistent trade deficit

The aging and lack of competitiveness of many traditional US industries have led to a loss of market share in the world and domestic markets. Therefore, the risk of imports has increased and in fact, after the Reagan administration implemented a trade liberalization policy from the mid-1980s, the trade deficit occurred rapidly. In 1981, the deficit reached 15.8 billion USD; in 1988 it increased to 59.8 billion USD, accounting for nearly half of the total US trade deficit. In the early 1990s, there were signs of a decrease, but by 1993 it had exceeded 60 billion USD [28; p.20].

The budget deficit is increasing and the state debt is increasing.

The federal budget deficit was one of America's hottest issues in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s.

XX forced many government agencies to close for weeks, and anti-government protests broke out.

The problem of the US federal budget deficit began to appear in the 1960s. The phenomenon of insufficient revenue was due to the impact of two main causes. First , after the Soviet Union successfully tested nuclear weapons and successfully launched artificial satellites, fearing that it would lose its role as world leader, the US entered an arms race with the Soviet Union, causing defense spending to increase; second , a number of industries, especially labor-intensive industries and low-capital industries in the US, fell into a difficult situation because they began to face strong competition from other capitalist countries that had just recovered from the war and were actively implementing export-oriented strategies. Due to the difficulties in these industries, not only did revenues decrease, but the state also had to spend more on unemployment in these industries. During the period 1960 - 1970, the US Federal budget only had a surplus twice, in 1960 - reaching 0.3 billion USD and in 1969 - reaching 3.2 billion USD [24; p.56]. Because the above two reasons continued to exist and did not weaken, the positive factors to increase revenue for the budget were not strong enough, so the budget deficit increased more and more until the early 1990s. If in the 60s, the average Federal budget deficit was 5.7 billion USD, accounting for 0.8% of the total national income, and in the 1970s the average annual deficit was 35 billion USD, accounting for 2.1% of the total national income, then by the 1980s, this number had jumped to 157.4 billion USD, accounting for 4.1% of GDP [28; p.23]. By 1992, the budget deficit had reached a record high of 290.4 billion USD [24; p.58]. Thus, it can be said that the budget deficit and federal debt had become a very complicated problem in the United States before the 1990s of the 20th century.

Unemployment and decline in high-paying jobs

The aging of some industries and poor competitiveness in the context of an open-door economic policy not only lead to loss of market share and narrowing of production in many industries, especially in the manufacturing sector.

especially many manufacturing industries, but also shrink jobs in this area.

The industrial sector was the backbone of the US economy after World War II, but due to many reasons, the number of jobs in these sectors has shrunk significantly. If in 1970, the number of workers in these sectors accounted for 26% of the total workforce, or more than a quarter of the total workforce, then just over two decades later, in 1992, its proportion was only 16.2%, meaning a decrease of nearly 10% [28; p.26].

More importantly, the loss of high-wage workers has not been shifted to higher-wage alternative jobs, but has instead fallen into unemployment or had to accept jobs, mainly in the service sector, with lower incomes. In fact, “millions of workers have had to move from jobs that used to pay $15 an hour to jobs that pay $7 an hour ” [28; p.26]. These workers have been the victims of mass layoffs and factory closures.

The crisis of confidence in America's superpower status

Another serious problem facing the United States during this period was the crisis of confidence in the American economic superpower status. The shrinking of many industries, the increasing number of bankruptcies, the increasing trade and budget deficits, the mounting federal debt, the rising unemployment, the reduction of high-income jobs and their replacement by service jobs with much lower incomes than in other developed countries caused a crisis of confidence among many classes of the American population.

Some theorists see this period of America as similar to the decline of the British Empire after World War I or the natural progression of many empires in the history of human society, after a period of prosperity inevitably comes a period of decline. Others believe that America is falling into a state of " deindustrialization ", gradually losing high-income jobs. Those who are too proud of America

Now people sigh and complain about people " selling America ", America is becoming a debtor to foreign countries.

The difficulties and challenges facing the United States in the 90s of the 20th century were enormous. President Bill Clinton admitted: “ The challenges we face are daunting ” [60; p.10]. To help the United States overcome these difficulties, comprehensive and holistic solutions from the ruling class are needed, the key of which is science and technology policy.

Summary

Looking back at the history of the United States, we can see that, since its founding, the US Government has had preferential policies to encourage the development of research and invention activities. In each period, depending on different historical circumstances, the US Governments when taking power have introduced different policies for the development of science and technology, but all policies aim at a common goal of developing the country and meeting the needs of the people. The development and position that the United States has had since its founding until now is the clearest evidence of the great role of science and technology.

In the early 90s of the 20th century, the world witnessed great changes in many aspects: the end of the Cold War, the Yalta bipolar order dissolved with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European socialist countries; the scientific and technological revolution developed and increasingly played a key role in the development of each country; the globalization trend was taking place strongly; a multi-centered world was forming; peace, cooperation and development were and are the dominant trends in international relations... Along with that were the difficulties within the United States after a long period of development: economic structural crisis, persistent trade deficit, increasing budget deficit and foreign debt, increasing unemployment... posed great opportunities and challenges for the Bill Clinton Government when it took office. To seize the opportunity and lead the country through difficult times, the Bill Clinton Government needed to put forth

many comprehensive solutions, in which science and technology policy is considered the key because it is the key to economic development and social stability. The new historical situation and the policies of previous governments are one of the bases for planning science and technology strategies of the country.

Bill Clinton when he came to power.

CHAPTER 2

ADJUSTMENTS AND SUPPORT MEASURES TO IMPLEMENT THE US SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY (1993-2001)

“Investing in technology is investing in America’s future” [85; p.1] - this slogan is the origin of all activities in the field of science and technology during the Clinton administration. Faced with changes in the world situation and urgent demands of the country, when taking office, Bill Clinton adjusted the economic development strategy in general and the science and technology policy in particular.

2.1 Adjustments in US science and technology development policy under President Bill Clinton 1993-2001

2.1.1 Shift from prioritizing defense to prioritizing restoring American economic strength

In the last decade of the 20th century, the world has undergone great changes. These were the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist system in Eastern Europe, the disintegration of the Yalta bipolar order, the end of the Cold War and the opening of new trends in international relations. One of those new trends is that countries adjust their development strategies - focusing on economic development. Today, economics has become the fundamental content in international relations. Building the comprehensive strength of the nation to replace the arms race has become the main form of competition between great powers. Therefore, facing this change, the US also needs to adjust to have a strategy suitable to the new situation - in which the first adjustment is to shift from the main priority of serving national defense to the priority of restoring the US economic strength.

The end of the Cold War deprived the US scientific and technological complex of a significant part of its global mission - a mission closely linked to the confrontation between the two systems of capitalism and socialism. Coming to power in the early 1980s - when the contradictions of the system

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