“Diminishing Returns. The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation”

Key theme seminar: Transformation of capitalism

Sciences Po, 1 place Saint-Thomas d'Aquin & via Zoom*

Registration

Over fifty years ago Andrew Shonfeld wrote Modern Capitalism, which initiated a new field of inquiry about ‘comparative capitalism.’ His focus was the politics of the mixed economy and how various hybrid forms of capitalism were able to address problems of accumulation and growth more effectively than in previous phases of capitalist development. 
Fifty plus years later, at the end of the neoliberal era, modern capitalism faces problems far different from Shonfeld’s period. Growth has slowed down considerably, generating a host of new problems, from financial instability to the collapse of mainstream parties. What happens when growth – the main mechanism of capitalist legitimation – is harder to come by and less broadly shared? And how should we think about capitalist diversity in the context of global stagnation?

In the volume Diminishing Returns. The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation (Oxford University Press, July 2022), editors Lucio Baccaro, Mark Blyth, and Jonas Pontusson address these questions by bringing together a number of comparative and international political economists with expertise in different countries and regions. The chapters are inspired by a common theoretical framework about ‘Growth Models,’ a new theoretical perspective to help social scientists, policymakers, and opinion makers understand the politics of growth and stagnation.

Speakers

Lucio Baccaro is the Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG). He is interested in the interaction of social and economic forces and in how such interaction shapes the norms that regulate contemporary capitalist societies, particularly in so far as labour markets and welfare states are concerned.

His research is mostly macro-comparative and combines quantitative analysis of large datasets with in-depth investigation of case studies based on field research. A related interest of his is the emergence of new forms of democratic governance centring on participatory and deliberative institutions. Prior to heading the MPIfG, he was a Full Professor of Macrosociology at the University of Geneva (2009-2020), a faculty member at MIT, Sloan School of Management, Institute for Work and Employment Research (2006-2008), a Senior Research Officer at the International Institute for Labour Studies, International Labour Organization (2000-2005), and a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University (1998-2000). He holds a PhD in Industrial Relations and Political Science from the MIT.

Jonas Pontusson is a Professor at the University of Geneva where he is the principal investigator of the Unequal Democracies project funded by an ERC Advanced Grant. He has a long-standing interest in the comparative politics of inequality and redistribution, with an emphasis on labor-market dynamics and the role of trade unions. He has written extensively on Swedish social democracy and also contributed to the literature on varieties of capitalism. Alongside Unequal Democracies, Jonas is engaged in a project on post-Fordist growth models with Lucio Baccaro, supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Prior to moving to Geneva in 2010, he taught at Cornell University (1984-2005) and Princeton University (2005-10). He holds a BA from Amherst College (1978) and a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley (1984).

Chair

Meryem Bezzaz, Sciences Po, CEE & AxPo

Discussant

Bruno Palier, Sciences Po, CEE & LIEPP

*The link will be sent after your registration