Introduction : the politics of advanced capitalism

摘要: In the concluding chapter of 1999 volume Continuity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism , then-editors affirmed that most challenging part characterization contemporary capitalism is to determine “how cross-sectional patterns variation, locked through intricate pathways industrialization democratization, are shaped by growing global interdependence domestic political socioeconomic change” (Kitschelt et al. 1999: 427). Today, almost two decades later, task at hand seems even more daunting, as advanced caught up an accelerating flux, induced both external constraints well internal dynamics its forces institutional reforms. a process accelerated Great Recession, virtually every essential aspect economies undergoing fundamental, potentially far-reaching, transformations. From demographic tenets society, partisan loyalties or organization labor markets economic institutions, education, tax, social protection systems, everything be fundamental change need either adaptation radical reform. The cross-national variation arrangements have shifted from frozen landscapes complex, hybrid, morphing configuration elements taken different places “models.” What were previously understood stable rather self-contained “models” growth, distribution, risk management now giving way unprecedented combinations across such models with unanticipated consequences for performance much individual citizens' life chances. A full understanding these processes requires revisiting existing accounts among economies. While current reconfiguration may no longer conform any highlighted previous literature on post–World War II past today's affluent democracies, while developments make us reconsider how characterized first place, stream new evidence does not, however, warrant conclusion transformations random signal convergence single equilibrium.