Re-Forming Capitalism: Institutional Change in the German Political Economy

by Wolfgang Streeck

Overview

Wolfgang Streeck is a leading figure in comparative political economy and institutional theory. In this book he addresses some of the key arguments in these fields: the role of history in institutional analysis, the dynamics of slow institutional change, and the recurrent difficulties of restraining the effects of capitalism on social order.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199556779
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/28/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Wolfgang Streeck is Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany. From 1988 to 1995 he was Professor of Sociology and Industrial Relations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1998/99 he was President of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics. He has held visiting positions at the European University Institute in Florence, at the University of Warwick, the Instituto Juan March in Madrid, and the Sciences Po in Paris; he was a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin and the Russell Sage Foundation in New York; and he is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and the Academia Europea.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Institutional Change, Capitalist DevelopmentPart I: Gradual Change: Five Sectoral Trajectories1. Five Sectors2. Industry-wide Collective Bargaining: Shrinking Core, Expanding Fringes3. Intermediary Organization: Declining Membership, Rising Tensions4. Social Policy: The Rise and Fall of Welfare Corporatism5. Public Finance: The Fiscal Crisis of the Postwar State6 Corporate Governance: The Decline of Germany Inc.Part II: Systemic Change: Patterns and Causes7. Systemic Change: Five Parallel Trajectories8. From System to Process9. Endogenous Change: Time, Age, and the Self-Undermining of Institutions10. Time's Up: Positive Externalities Turning NegativePart III: Disorganization: Bringing Capitalism Back in11. Disorganization as Liberalization12. Convergence, Non-convergence, Divergence13. 'Economizing' and the Evolution of Political-Economic Institutions14. Internationalization15. German Unification16. History17. Bringing Capitalism Back In

Editorial Reviews

"Re-Forming Capitalism is to my mind one of the best books on modern capitalism that has been written during the last few decades. In its theoretical part it takes on the hard task of trying to make sense of modern capitalism from a fundamentally novel perspective. The book is also very pleasurable to read. The chapters are short, and the author elegantly introduces the reader to his case study, and then theorizes it, drawing out its general implications for the analysis of modern capitalism." —Contemporary Sociology

From the Publisher