Iversen / Soskice Democracy and Prosperity

Reinventing Capitalism through a Turbulent Century
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-0-691-18887-4
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 359 Seiten

A groundbreaking new historical analysis of how global capitalism and advanced democracies mutually support each other

It is a widespread view that democracy and the advanced nation-state are in crisis, weakened by globalization and undermined by global capitalism, in turn explaining rising inequality and mounting populism. This book, written by two of the world’s leading political economists, argues this view is wrong: advanced democracies are resilient, and their enduring historical relationship with capitalism has been mutually beneficial.

For all the chaos and upheaval over the past century—major wars, economic crises, massive social change, and technological revolutions—Torben Iversen and David Soskice show how democratic states continuously reinvent their economies through massive public investment in research and education, by imposing competitive product markets and cooperation in the workplace, and by securing macroeconomic discipline as the preconditions for innovation and the promotion of the advanced sectors of the economy. Critically, this investment has generated vast numbers of well-paying jobs for the middle classes and their children, focusing the aims of aspirational families, and in turn providing electoral support for parties. Gains at the top have also been shared with the middle (though not the bottom) through a large welfare state.

Contrary to the prevailing wisdom on globalization, advanced capitalism is neither footloose nor unconstrained: it thrives under democracy precisely because it cannot subvert it. Populism, inequality, and poverty are indeed great scourges of our time, but these are failures of democracy and must be solved by democracy.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Iversen, Torben

Soskice, David

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Globalisierung
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Demokratie
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftspolitik, politische Ökonomie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;CONTENTS;5
2;TABLES AND FIGURES;7
3;PREFACE;11
4;ACKNOWLEDGMENTS;17
5;1. Introduction;23
6;2. Two Paths to Democracy;75
7;3. The Rise and Fall of Fordism;124
8;4. Knowledge Economies and Their Political Construction;158
9;5. The Politics of the Knowledge Economy and the Rise of Populism;238
10;6. Conclusion: The Future of Advanced Capitalist Democracies;279
11;NOTES;301
12;BIBLIOGRAPHY;311
13;INDEX;335
14;A NOTE ON THE TYPE;359

Über Autor(innen)

Torben Iversen is the Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University. His books include Women, Work, and Politics and Capitalism, Democracy, and Welfare. David Soskice is School Professor and Professor of Political Science and Economics at the London School of Economics. His books include Macroeconomics: Institutions, Instability, and the Financial System (with Wendy Carlin) and Varieties of Capitalism (edited with Peter A. Hall).