Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies

Debates surrounding institutional change have become increasingly central to Political Science, Management Studies, and Sociology, opposing the role of globalization in bringing about a convergence of national economies and institutions on one model to theories about 'Varieties of Capitalism'. This book brings together a distinguished set of contributors from a variety of disciplines to examine current theories of institutional change. The chapters highlight the limitations of these theories, finding them lacking in the analytic tools necessary to identify the changes occurring at a national level, and therefore tend to explain many changes and innovation as simply another version of previous situations. Instead a model emerges of contemporary political economies developing in incremental but cumulatively transformative processes. The contributors show that a wide, but not infinite, variety of models of institutional change exist which can meaningfully distinguished and analytically compared. They offer an empirically grounded typology of modes of institutional change that offer important insights on mechanisms of social and political stability, and evolution generally. Beyond Continuity provides a more complex and fundamental understanding of institutional change, and will be important reading for academics, researchers, and advanced students of Political Science, Management Studies, Sociology, and Economics. Contributors to this volume - Colin Crouch, Department of Social and Political Sciences, European University Institute, Florence Richard Deeg, Temple University Marie-Laure Djelic, ESSEC Busines School, Paris Jacob S. Hacker, Yale University Gregory Jackson, Kings College, University of London Maarten Keune, European University Insitute, Florence Jonah D. Levy, University of California, Berkeley Bruno Palier, Centre D'Etudes de la Vie Politique Francaise (CEVIPOF), Paris Sigrid Quack, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, Germany Wolfgang Streeck, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne Kathleen Thelen, Northwestern University Christine Trampusch, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne Steven K. Vogel, University of California, Berkeley