Varieties of capitalism and capitalism tout court

Dorothee Bohle*, Béla Greskovits

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview Articlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

The article reviews the Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) approach and its large impact on the field of comparative political economy. It situates the approach within the field, and stresses its specificities. The article argues that VoC's firm-centeredness, parsimony, and reliance on conceptual tools borrowed from economics, fit better than other approaches to a Zeitgeist formed in the context of the demise of Western capitalism's alternatives, and the globalization-induced shift of societies center of gravity away from politics towards firms and markets. The article then revisits major debates that have followed the publication of the seminal Hall-Soskice book. The debates have revealed that VoC's greatest strengths, in the end, turn out to be obstacles when it comes to analyzing problems of contemporary capitalism.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)355-386
Number of pages32
JournalArchives Europeennes de Sociologie
Volume50
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2009

Keywords

  • Globalization
  • Institutionalism
  • Post-communist capitalism
  • Social dynamics
  • Varieties of capitalism

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