Debating Varieties of Capitalism: A Reader »

Bob Hancké is a Reader in European Political Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Previous appointments were at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, at the J.F. Kennedy School and the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, as a Jean Monnet Fellow at the EUI in Florence, and as a doctoral researcher at MIT. He wrote Large Firms and Institutional Change (Oxford University Press, 2002), co-edited Beyond Varieties of Capitalism (Oxford University Press, 2007) and participated in the project that led to Varieties of Capitalism¸ edited by Peter Hall and David Soskice (Oxford University Press, 2001). His research interests are the political economy of advanced capitalist societies, the relation between institutions and macro-economic policy, and labour relations.

Peter Hall and David Soskice's Varieties of Capitalism has become a seminal text and reference point across the social sciences, generating debate and research around political-economic models. Here, Bob Hancké presents the key readings on "Varieties of Capitalism", including the original Hall and Soskice introduction, which encompass the key issues in the study of capitalism and capitalist diversity, its origins, and the debates that followed it. Beginning with the broad theoretical arguments around the idea of "Varieties of Capitalism", the book then goes on to focus on specific empirical controversies, before finally considering recent attempts at rethinking this influential framework.

The Debating Varieties of Capitalism Reader is the perfect guide to understanding this set of ideas that have changed the way we look at comparative political economy.

Introducing the Debate Bob Hancké 1

Part I Capitalist Diversity

1 An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism Peter A. Hall David Soskice 21

2 Typologies of Capitalism Colin Crouch 75

3 Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies Wolfgang Streeck Kathleen Thelen 95

Part II Debating Varieties of Capitalism

4 Varieties of Capitalism and Institutional Complementarities in the Political Economy: An Empirical Analysis Peter Hall Daniel W. Gingerich 135

5 Institutional Coherence and Macroeconomic Performance Lane Kenworthy 180

6 Can High-Technology Industries Prosper in Germany? Institutional Frameworks and the Evolution of the German Software and Biotechnology Industries Steven Casper Mark Lehrer David Soskice 200

7 Empirical Evidence Against Varieties of Capitalism's Theory of Technological Innovation Mark Z. Taylor 221

Part III Rethinking Varieties of Capitalism

8 Institutional Change in Varieties of Capitalism Peter Hall Kathleen Thelen 251

9 Beyond Varieties of Capitalism Bob Hancké Martin Rhodes Mark Thatcher 273

References 301

Index 331