“Mapping Stability and Change in European Capitalisms”

The ‘varieties of capitalism’ (VOC) school has come to dominate comparative political economy, but there is little consensus within the literature on their core traits, proper labels, or which countries fit into which categories of capitalism. This article corrects this shortcoming by constructing an empirical index of the varieties of capitalism that can be used to empirically map European with other capitalist economies. Extending the concepts beyond economic institutions most prominently examined in the VOC literature (dubbed here the economic context), the framework produce here also includes the broader context of public policy and political-economic culture (the policy and social contexts, respectively). Once the index is constructed, the pattern of individual country scores largely conforms to theoretical expectations, albeit with some surprises. Most continental European economies look quite similar (which calls into question the utility of subdividing this grouping) and have changed relatively little in terms of their core political-economic structure since 1980. Other states, in contrast, mainly Ireland and New Zealand, have transformed substantially. This movement has not, however, been uniformly towards greater liberalization; Ireland, has, in fact, become a more coordinated economy. Empirically mapping European capitalisms rather than relying on subjective categorizations therefore opens the way to more effectively analyzing the economic implications and political dynamics of different modes of capitalist organization in a globalizing world economy