The structuralist thinking that generates industry and technology policies does not arise in a vacuum since all economic policies have structuralist implications. As economic policies change over time, so do the structuralist implications that can be drawn from them. An examination of specific major postwar Western European economic policies reveals that they do tend to influence the nature of industry and technology policies. But these industry and technology policies do not provide simple recipes for changing the industrial mix so that it is relevant to contemporary economic policy goals.