Breaking the mould: an institutionalist political economy alternative to the neo-liberal theory of the market and the state

The paper criticises the currently dominant neo-liberal discourse on the role of the state and proposes an alternative approach that will allow us to overcome its shortcomings, especially its inadequate analyses of the role of institutions and politics. It argues that the central problem with the neo-liberal framework lies not in its excessively anti-interventionist policy conclusions, as some of its critics believe, but in the very ways it envisages the modus operandi of the market, the state, institutions and their interrelationships. The paper then discusses how we may construct the alternative approach of 'institutionalist political economy'. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.