Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 140-148
Author(s):  
Philip Manow
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Education System ◽  
Comparative Political Economy ◽  
Comparative Framework

This final chapter of the book summarizes the argument, discusses its main findings, and situates the German case in a broader comparative framework. The chapter mentions possible extensions of the argument especially with respect to the role of the education system for Germany’s variant of coordinated capitalism (in particular in contrast to its Scandinavian homologue). It then summarizes the argument of how the German welfare state provided capital and labor with functional equivalents for the structures of neo-corporatist concertation which Germany’s federal and “economically liberal” polity lacks. Finally, the chapter discusses the implications of the argument for a comparative political economy of advanced capitalisms.

Comparative Political Economy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Menz
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Comparative Political Economy ◽  
Technological Parameters ◽  
Private Debt

This new and comprehensive volume invites the reader on a tour of the exciting subfield of comparative political economy. The book provides an in-depth account of the theoretical debates surrounding different models of capitalism. Tracing the origins of the field back to Adam Smith and the French Physiocrats, the development of the study of models of political-economic governance is laid out and reviewed. Comparative Political Economy (CPE) sets itself apart from International Political Economy (IPE), focusing on domestic economic and political institutions that compose in combination diverse models of political economy. Drawing on evidence from the US, the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, and Japan, the volume affords detailed coverage of the systems of industrial relations, finance, welfare states, and the economic role of the state. There is also a chapter that charts the politics of public and private debt. Much of the focus in CPE has rested on ideas, interests, and institutions, but the subfield ought to take the role of culture more seriously. This book offers suggestions for doing so. It is intended as an introduction to the field for postgraduate students, yet it also offers new insights and fresh inspiration for established scholars. The Varieties of Capitalism approach seems to have reached an impasse, but it could be rejuvenated by exploring the composite elements of different models and what makes them hang together. Rapidly changing technological parameters, new and more recent environmental challenges, demographic change, and immigration will all affect the governance of the various political economy models throughout the OECD. The final section of the book analyses how these impending challenges will reconfigure and threaten to destabilize established national systems of capitalism.

The Comparative Political Economy of the Welfare State

1995 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 544
Author(s):  
Colin Crouch ◽  
Thomas Janoski ◽  
Alexander M. Hicks
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Comparative Political Economy ◽  
The Welfare State

Welfare State Research and Comparative Political Economy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silja Häusermann
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Comparative Political Economy ◽  
Investment Policies ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
State Research

Which risks are social and which are private? How much of their GDP do states spend on social welfare? Who exactly is entitled to which benefits? Is it still possible to finance an encompassing welfare state in times of deindustrialization, technological and demographic change, and globalization? And why do the answers to these questions differ so much across countries? These and similar questions—all central to social cohesion in capitalist democracies—ensure that the analysis of welfare politics is one of the theoretically as well as methodologically most dynamic and richest research areas within comparative political economy and political science more generally. Besides outlining the comparative development and the difficulty of measuring social policy, the focus of this contribution lies in a critical review of the most important past and current theoretical debates in the field of welfare state research, as a subfield of comparative political economy. These debates include party- and power-resource-centered approaches and their critiques, institutional explanations of welfare state retrenchment and restructuring, and the importance of multidimensional distributional effects for the analysis of social policy. The article concludes with a review of three more recent debates: the importance of public opinion and individual preferences for the development of the welfare state, the interaction of social policy and the changes of party systems, and the increasing relevance of social investment policies. The political and scientific need for innovative political science research will continue for the foreseeable future: Theory building and methodological possibilities are developing quickly, and the welfare states as research subject are constantly being challenged.

Poor Numbers: Statistical Chains and the Political Economy of Numbers

2016 ◽  
Vol 71 (04) ◽  
pp. 507-538
Author(s):  
Agnès Labrousse
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Comparative Political Economy ◽  
Historical Ethnography

Morten Jerven'sPoor Numberssheds light on the acute fragility of African statistics, itself linked to the precarious conditions in which aggregates are produced. As patchy and problematic as they are, these numbers are nevertheless ubiquitous as instruments of proof and tools of government. Quantified fictions take shape in complex statistical chains that stretch from their producers to the economists who use them, and are mediated by international organizations. Focusing on the criterion of accuracy,Poor Numberspowerfully conveys its message of “garbage in, garbage out,” but leaves important questions related to the relevance of statistics unanswered. The history, sociology, and political economy of numbers sketched by Jerven merit closer consideration with a view to the following: identifying the connections between evolving state forms and the development of statistics; establishing a historical ethnography of the organizations that produce and use numbers; understanding the growing role of multinationals in the political economy of statistics; taking a less conciliatory view of the involvement of international organizations; and, last but not least, denaturalizing the dominant economic categories by integrating the plurality of economic approaches to statistics. The article concludes with a call for a comparative political economy of numbers that would no longer consider the African case in isolation, and would work against the idea that Africa has not entered statistical history, or has only done so “by mistake.”

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