From Comparative Public Policy to Political Economy: Putting Political Institutions in their Place and Taking Interests Seriously

The historical institutionalist tradition in comparative politics commonly assigns analytical primacy to political institutions. Whereas this polity-centeredness may be quite justifiable for purposes of comparative public policy, students of comparative political economy should pay systematic attention not only to economic institutions but also to a range of economic-structural variables that lie beyond the conventional confines of institutional analysis. Providing the basis for an analysis of collective actors and their interests, such an approach is needed to account for institutional change and policy realignments within stable institutions

Global and Domestic Politics in the Wake of the Financial and Economic Crisis

The December 2012 issue of SPSR featured a collection of short essays that explored the domestic politics of the financial crisis, the ensuing international recession and the ongoing difficulties of managing the debt problems and trade imbalances of the Eurozone. The contributors to the first installment of our debate on crisis politics engaged in historical and comparative discussions of government responses to the crisis of 2007-10 and the political repercussions of the crisis. For this, the second and final installment, we have invited prominent scholars in the field of international political economy to comment on how institutions of global governance have performed since 2007 and the long-term implications of the crisis for the prospects of international cooperation in trade, finance and investment. We have also included an essay on the domestic politics of labor market reforms in Western Europe, thematically linked to several essays in the December 2012 issue. By way of introduction, I will briefly summarize and comment on the main ideas of the four essays that follow