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Spiralling inequality since the 1970s and the global financial crisis of 2008 have been the two most important challenges to democratic capitalism since the Great Depression. To understand the political economy of contemporary Europe and America we must, therefore, put inequality and crisis at the heart of the picture.
In this innovative new textbook Mattias Vermeiren does just this, demonstrating that both the global financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis resulted from a mutually reinforcing but ultimately unsustainable relationship between countries with debt-led and export-led growth models, models fundamentally shaped by soaring income and wealth inequality. He traces the emergence of these two growth models by giving a comprehensive overview, deeply informed by the comparative and international political economy literature, of recent developments in the four key domains that have shaped the dynamics of crisis and inequality: macroeconomic policy, social policy, corporate governance and financial policy. He goes on to assess the prospects for the emergence of a more egalitarian and sustainable form of democratic capitalism.
This fresh and insightful overview of contemporary Western capitalism will be essential reading for all students and scholars of international and comparative political economy.
List of contents
List of Figures, Tables and Boxes
Introduction
Chapter 1 Rising inequality in advanced capitalism
Chapter 2 The rise and fall of egalitarian capitalism
Chapter 3 Macroeconomic policy: From "full employment" to "sound money"
Chapter 4 Social policy: Globalisation, deindustrialisation and liberalisation
Chapter 5 Corporate governance: The rise of shareholder capitalism
Chapter 6 Financial policy: Market-based banking and the global financial crisis
Chapter 7 Macroeconomic imbalances before and after the crisis
Chapter 8 The future of egalitarian capitalism
Notes
References
About the author
Mattias Vermeiren is Associate Professor of International Political Economy at Ghent University.
Summary
Spiralling inequality since the 1970s and the global financial crisis of 2008 have been the two most important challenges to democratic capitalism since the Great Depression. To understand the political economy of contemporary Europe and America we must, therefore, put inequality and crisis at the heart of the picture.
In this innovative new textbook Mattias Vermeiren does just this, demonstrating that both the global financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis resulted from a mutually reinforcing but ultimately unsustainable relationship between countries with debt-led and export-led growth models, models fundamentally shaped by soaring income and wealth inequality. He traces the emergence of these two growth models by giving a comprehensive overview, deeply informed by the comparative and international political economy literature, of recent developments in the four key domains that have shaped the dynamics of crisis and inequality: macroeconomic policy, social policy, corporate governance and financial policy. He goes on to assess the prospects for the emergence of a more egalitarian and sustainable form of democratic capitalism.
This fresh and insightful overview of contemporary Western capitalism will be essential reading for all students and scholars of international and comparative political economy.
Report
"Vermeiren's Crisis and Inequality is a lucid book that analyses the shift from Keynesianism to neoliberalism and the resulting bifurcation of debt-driven and export-driven growth models, the global financial crisis and the ensuing secular stagnation. It offers a clear examination of the impact of rising inequality and economic instability. This is an important book that demonstrates the vitality of the growth models approach to political economy."
Engelbert Stockhammer, King's College London
"A must-read on inequality, firmly anchored where it should be, in the politics of macroeconomic policy regimes."
Daniela Gabor, University of the West of England, Bristol "Erudite, comprehensive, and stimulating, Crisis and Inequality is the best introduction to economic issues for political science students that I have read... It is an invaluable service to the discipline."
Scott Lavery, Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI)
