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Robert Boyer, Économie politique des capitalismes: Théorie de la régulation et des crises, La Découverte, 2015

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Abstract

This article presents a book review of Robert Boyer’s Économie politique des capitalismes: Théorie de la régulation et des crises, La Découverte, 2015. This book shows the systematic framework of the régulation theory based on recent research by the network of economists working along this paradigm. The theory presents a significant message that the analysis of the diverse interactions between polity and economy and the interdependence of growth regimes is indispensable in the analysis of the varieties of capitalism. As the book was originally published in French, this book review provides careful translations and interpretations of French words and phrases in English to help readers understand the academic essence of the book completely. Furthermore, this review highlights the significance of the book with a systematic theoretical framework in the context of Japanese social sciences.

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Notes

  1. As for the recent research, see Boyer (2004, 2011), Boyer et al. (2012, 2018).

  2. We see a similar argument on the importance of “trust” and “social preference” in the capitalist market economy in Bowles (2016).

  3. In Japan, such seminal works as Aglietta (1976) and Boyer (1986) were translated into Japanese in the late 1980s. Yamada (1991) was also published to introduce the régulation theory to Japanese academic society.

  4. Tsuru also emphasized the fact that business cycles and crises were not eliminated even in contemporary capitalism with new institutional configurations after World War II (Tsuru 1959).

  5. For example, Ikumi (1958) and Nagasu (1974) argued that post-war capitalism was a new stage of capitalist development, suggesting the importance of “democratic structural reform” in post-war capitalism. As for a survey of this strand, also see Yamada (2018).

  6. For example, Amable (2003) developed the concepts of “institutional complementarity” and “institutional hierarchy” in his analysis of the diversity of capitalisms.

  7. A similar framework of the varieties (stages and types) of capitalism and civil society was proposed by Mitsuharu Ito in Japan earlier in the 1970s (Ito 1973).

  8. “Accumulation regime” and “growth regime” are usually used synonymously in the régulation theory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Setsunan University, Neyagawa, Japan

    Yuji Harada

  2. Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Japan

    Hiroyasu Uemura

Authors
  1. Yuji Harada
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  2. Hiroyasu Uemura
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Correspondence to Hiroyasu Uemura.

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Harada, Y., Uemura, H. Robert Boyer, Économie politique des capitalismes: Théorie de la régulation et des crises, La Découverte, 2015. Evolut Inst Econ Rev 16, 551–566 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40844-019-00145-1

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