The UK: Less a liberal market economy, more a post-imperial one

Abstract

This article adds a new element to the growing critique of the original varieties of capitalism (VoC) distinction between liberal and coordinated market capitalisms by questioning the usefulness of the liberal market economy (LME) category itself. It demonstrates that many of the distinguishing features of the LME category are – in the US and UK cases at least – best explained by those economies’ external global and hegemonic role, rather than by their internal institutional complementarities. Imperialism holds the key to liberalism – a key demonstrated here by a detailed examination of the UK case. The lessons for the study of comparative capitalisms are major: a total setting aside of the LME/CME distinction, and a return to the building of a global understanding of capitalism which is more than the sum of its individual parts. In order to understand LMEs, you need to understand imperialism; and to understand imperialism, you have to engage again with a revitalised Marxism.