Scottish Enterprise: a force for economic change?

In a recent article in the Quarterly Economic Commentary Neil Hood considered the background to the setting up of Scottish Enterprise and speculated about its eventual outcome. This article is intended to complement Hood's by looking in greater detail at some of the issues he raised which will affect the operations of the new body and the 13 local enterprise companies (LECs). Its main conclusion is that, in the short term, the "success" of the new structures will be crucially dependent upon the extent to which the LECs are allowed to pursue economic goals rather than being forced to manage national programmes such as Employment Training (ET).