Is economic development a "random walk" or do underlying rhythms
and cycles make it possible to anticipate long-term trends? Many
social scientists have rejected the notion of long-term periodicity
in economic trends. Now, after extensive analysis of economic data,
distinguished scholar Brian J. L. Berry has found new evidence for
the reliability-- and the value-- of "long-wave" theory.
In "Long-Wave Rhythms in Economic Development and Political
Bahavior," Berry argues that the synchronization of long waves and
growth cycles is "more than a figment of some overactive
imagination." Presenting his findings graphically, he argues that
there is persuasive evidence of the existence of "deterministic
chaos." Applying his analysis of rates of change to the economic
phenomena of prices (Kondratiev cycles) and growth (Kuznets
cycles), he discovers that pairs of 25-year growth cycles are
embedded within 55-year long waves. As a result, Berry concludes,
two different kinds of growth cycles-- one inflationary and the
other deflationary-- form a complementary pattern of alternating
crises with stagflation and depression. Berry also explores the
"shifting sand" of cyclical phenomena in the stock market, voting
behavior, the incidence of wars, the rise and fall of great powers,
and mass psychologies. While avoiding dogmatic conclusions, he
offers a provocative discussion of the long-wave context of social
phenomena.
As he examines the American economy in long-wave context, Berry
optimistically asserts that the "bust" is not inevitable.
Technological advances in information transfer enable leaders and
organizations to anticipate and alleviate the adverse effects of
economic cycles. "Like it or not," he writes, "our lives appear to
be embedded in a higher order of complexity: collectively, we are a
societal organism that displays self-regulating fluctuations around
a path of growth."
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