Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage

by Peter A. Hall (Editor), David Soskice (Editor)

Overview

What are the most fundamental differences among the political economies of the developed world? How do national institutional differences condition economic performance, public policy, and social well-being? Will they survive the pressures for convergence generated by globalization and technological change? These have long been central questions in comparative political economy. This book provides a new and coherent set of answers to them. Building on the new economics of organization, the authors develop an important new theory about which differences among national political economies are most significant for economic policy and performance. Drawing on a distinction between 'liberal' and 'coordinated' market economies, they argue that there is more than one path to economic success. Nations need not converge to a single Anglo-American model. They develop a new theory of 'comparative institutionaladvantage' that transforms our understanding of international trade, offers new explanations for the response of firms and nations to the challenges of globalization, and provides a new theory of national interest to explain the conduct of nations in international relations. The analysis brings the firm back into the centre of comparative political economy. It provides new perspectives on economic and social policy-making that illuminate the role of business in the development of the welfare state and the dilemmas facing those who make economic policy in the contemporary world. Emphasizing the 'institutional complementarities' that link labour relations, corporate finance, and national legal systems, the authors bring interdisciplinary perspectives to bear on issues of strategic management, economic performance, and institutional change. This pathbreaking work sets new agendas in the study of comparative political economy. As such, it will be of value to academics and graduate students in economics, business, and political science, as well as to many others with interests in international relations, social policy-making, and the law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191647703
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	08/30/2001
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Peter A. Hall is Frank G. Thomson Professor of Government and Harvard College Professor at Harvard University where he is also the Director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies. He is the author or editor of several books and many articles on European politics, policy-making, and comparative political economy. His work has received numerous awards including the Woodrow Wilson Award for the best book in political science published in 1986 and the Luebbert Award for the best article in comparative politics published in 1998. David Soskice is Research Professor of Political Science at Duke University and Adjunct Research Professor at the School for Social Sciences of the Australian National University. He is Emeritus Fellow in Economics at University College, Oxford, and on leave from the Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung in Berlin (WZB) where he has been Director of the Research Unit on Employment and Economic Change since 1990. He is the author or editor of several books and many articles on comparative political economy, macroeconomics, and labor economics.

Table of Contents

List of FiguresList of TablesList of Contributors1. An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism, Peter A. Hall and David SoskicePart I: General Themes and Diverse Applications2. Varieties of Labor Politics in the Developed Democracies, Kathleen Thelen3 Institutional and Sectoral Interactions in Monetary Policy and Wage/Price-Bargaining, Robert J. Franzese, Jr.4. Social Protection and the Formation of Skills: A Reinterpretation of the Welfare State, Margarita Estevez-Abe, Torben Iversen, and David Soskice5. Firms and the Welfare State: When, Why and How Does Social Policy Matter to Employers?, Isabela Mares6. The Domestic Sources of Multilateral Preferences: Varieties of Capitalism in the European Community, Orfeo FioretosPart II: Case Studies in Public Policy, Continuity, and Change7. Business, Government, and Patterns of Labor Market Policy in Britain and the Federal Republic of Germany, Stewart Wood8. Employers, Public Policy, and the Politics of Decentralized Cooperation in Germany and France, Pepper D. Culpepper9. Revisiting the French Model: Coordination and Restructuring in French Industry, Bob Hanck^d'ePart III: Corporate Governance, Firm Strategy, and the Law10. Varieties of Corporate Governance: Comparing Germany and the UK, Sigurt Vitols11. Macro-varieties of Capitalism and Micro-varieties of Strategic Management in European Airlines, Mark Lehrer12. The Legal Framework for Corporate Governance: The Influence of Contract Law on Company Strategies in Germany and the United States, Steven Casper13. Legal Irritants: How Unifying Law Ends up in the New Divergences, Gunther Teubner14. National Varieties of Standardization, Jay TateBibliographyIndex

Editorial Reviews

"With this book Peter Hall and David Soskice are opening a new chapter in the analysis of contemporary capitalism. They have succeeded in bringing together in one compelling formulation historical - institutional and rationalist - individualist analytical perspectives. The empirical applications in Varieties of Capitalism illuminate in a profound way how both scholars and policy makers will benefit when they link macro- and micro-level analyses across the many different sectors that define contemporary capitalism in its many forms. Economists and political scientists, finally, are able to meet on common ground. This book will become a classic in the field."— Peter J. Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell University.

"This invaluable contribution to the comparative capitalism literature vigorously argues against the notion of convergence so popular in the globalism debates. The authors expand our understanding of national "production systems" to see new connections and show that the differences aong them allow countries to pursue distinctly different strategies of international competition. A must read."—Peter Gourevitch, University of California, San Diego

"This book has been well worth waiting for. It demonstrates the wealth of insights that could be achieveed through Soskice's innovative research program that began to chang the agenda of Comparative POlitical Economy more than a decade ago. The volume combines a definitive restatement of the varieties of cpitialism approach with illuminative applications to the range of research areas covered by it with some fascinating theoretical extensions. Excellent!"— F.W. Scharpf, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne

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