Institutional Change in Varieties of Capitalism

Paper prepared for presentation to the Europeanists Conference, Chicago, March 2006.

Comparative political economists have become deeply interested in processes of institutional change, and especially in those taking place in response to the opening of world markets associated with ‘globalization’. They are asking a number of questions. When do the institutions of the political economy change? What factors drive change? Are changes in the international economy enforcing institutional convergence on the developed economies? We take up these issues with reference to one of the more influential frameworks devised to explain national differences in economic performance and policy, namely the ‘varieties of capitalism’ perspective now employed by a substantial number of scholars