| Applications of a theoretical model of the state to the federal oil shale program supported the primary research hypothesis that the state acts semi-autonomously in relation to the private sector. Public policy may be seen in the instance of oil shale development as neither wholly dependent upon nor wholly autonomous from the private sector and the economy. As the process of capital accumulation is uneven, at times the objective of public policy is to counter inherent cyclical tendencies. At other times, when the state acts explicitly to support accumulation, public policy may exacerbate uneven development.;A model of regional development was constructed, situating traditional locational and resource concerns within a macro-level framework in which the federal government promotes regional development under the auspices of multinational corporations. This pattern of development was hereby defined as dependent accumulation. The research hypothesis that state-sponsored oil shale industrialization contributed to uneven regional development on Colorado's Western Slope was supported through the application of this model.;The "fit" between federally-sponsored accumulation and local support for dependent accumulation was facilitated by the guiding classical liberal constructs of the socioeconomic system. Further, this "fit" was implemented by public sector bureaucracies at various levels of government, which pursued semi-independent imperatives of survival and expansion. |
