Explaining uneven development trajectories in contemporary capitalism: Towards an interconnected framework of comparative political economy

Abstract

Why do development trajectories diverge across countries, even when similar policies are pursued? This article proposes an integrated framework of comparative political economy that traces this divergence to seven interrelated dimensions and their configuration: the macroeconomic constellation, the financial system, integration in global production, industrial policy, social policy, the labour and employment system, and social blocs. The dimensions are treated symmetrically-none holds causal priority in advance, and which of them are influential or constraining in a given case is an empirical question-so that the framework can be applied to economies in very different positions in the world economy. Six interaction mechanisms connect the dimensions, linking a country's external insertion into the global economy, its financial and macroeconomic structures, its policy fields, and its social power relations. Configurations in which the dimensions reinforce one another tend to reproduce themselves, with their course depending on the stability of the dominant social bloc. On this basis, the article focuses on the conditions under which economic policy is effective for whom: the same instrument can succeed in one configuration, fail in another and serve a variety of interests. The framework is thus intended as a diagnostic instrument for comparative research, and a set of indicators makes it empirically applicable.