Introduction: Rethinking Comparative Capitalism

Abstract

Abstract This introductory essay flashes out the “growth model” perspective and provides a framework for the chapters in the volume. It makes five interrelated arguments. First, existing theoretical frameworks are ill equipped to tackle the politics of growth and stagnation because of their almost exclusive focus on “supply side institutionalism.” Second, political economists need to take macroeconomics more seriously but also be more critical of mainstream theories and take advantage of pluralism in macroeconomics. Third, an advanced capitalist economy faces a common problem of boosting aggregate demand in the face of a broad stagnationist tendency, but growth drivers differ significantly at the country level. Fourth, international political economy factors contribute to shaping the feasibility and durability of national growth models. Fifth, the analysis of the politics of growth models needs to combine both electoral and producer group perspectives by distinguishing between the politics of policy choice and the politics of democratic legitimation.