Business Interests and the Varieties of Capitalism: Historical Origins and Future Possibilities

The central purpose of the workshop is to explore the degree of integration of the components of production regimes (relations between firms and financial systems, educational and training systems, interfirm relations, industrial relations, etc.) and the degree of integration of the production regime types with the types of welfare states.

We know that the elements of production regimes and welfare states are associated; the question is are they functional and necessarily interrelated. One might conceptualize polar types in which one pole represents complete functional integration in which a change in one element might cause all other elements to change and the other pole in which the association of the elements is simply an historical accident. Obviously, the truth is somewhere in between these two poles but it is not simply a matter of academic curiosity where on this spectrum the truth lies.

The very survival of the CME/low wage dispersion/generous welfare state nexus may well depend on the answer to this question.

Organized by David Coates (WFU), Herbert Kitschelt (Duke), Gary Marks (UNC), David Soskice (Duke), and John Stephens (UNC)