The Political Economy of Adjustment in Mixed Market Economies: A Study of Spain and Italy

Abstract

VoC theory seems to be caught in a trade-off between parsimony and explanatory capacity. It provides high heuristic value-added for analysing countries where performance-enhancing complementarities rely on clearly different patterns of actor interaction and forms of coordination. It appears more difficult to extend to ‘deviant’ cases where there is a mix of logics, a high degree of institutional incoherence and an apparent absence of complementarities. This chapter uses the tools of VoC to explain how mechanisms of market and non-market coordination work and change over time in two ‘mixed market economies’ (MMEs) — Italy and Spain. It focuses on the relationship between production regimes and welfare systems, and specifically the wage-labour nexus and employment protection. In contrast to arguments for a distinctive form of state capitalism alongside ‘market’ and ‘managed’ varieties, this chapter argues that the state's role is distinctive but not unique in the Mediterranean countries, and has also undergone considerable change in recent years. It also argues that two different trends can be perceived in these countries: the growth of ‘autonomous coordination’ in which actors seek to manage the economy via new kinds of non-market governance; and ‘market colonization’, a process whereby market modes of coordination emerge and prevail.

Varieties of entrepreneurship: exploring the institutional foundations of different entrepreneurship types through ‘Varieties-of-Capitalism’ arguments

“…Similarly, national expenditure for education is limited. This firms in MMEs a comparative advantage in low-cost production-with the exception of some niche markets, for example furniture or fashion, where Italian firms compete on incremental innovations and design (Molina and Rhodes 2007).…”

“…Our country sample is composed in line with the original VoC literature (Hall and Soskice 2001: 20) and its bestknown developments (Amable 2003;Hancké et al 2007;Molina and Rhodes 2007;Schneider and Paunescu 2012). It focuses on the European economies as they have been studied most by the VoC contributors.…”

Large-Scale Transition of Economic Systems Do CEECs Converge Towards Western Prototypes?

“…Molina and Rhodes (2008), e.g., discuss the trajectories of Italy and Spain, both considered to be a Mixed Market Economy (MME). This country group -mostly containing the Mediterranean countries, i.e.…”

Outsiderness among young people in Europe: A fuzzy set analysis

“…As for Southern Europe, it also lacks the logic of complementarities extant in Continental and Nordic countries (Molina and Rhodes, 2007).…”

“…Colin Crouch (1993:61-62) analysed how the industrial relations system evolved in a large set of European countries between 1870 and 1990 and stressed the existence of three ideal types of interest intermediation: (i) contestative relations, (ii) pluralist collective bargaining, and (iii) neo-corporatism. As is well documented, contestative relations characterise Southern Europe, and pluralist relations the Anglo-Saxon countries (Goetschy, 1998;Regini and Regalia, 1998;Ebbinghaus, 2006b:73;Molina and Rhodes, 2007;Lima and Naumann, 2011). The conflictual logic of some industrial relations systems is problematic to the dualisation framework given the emphasis that this literature places on cooperation in the core manufacturing economy 4 .…”