Orfeo Fioretos, Creative Reconstructions: Multilateralism and European Varieties of Capitalism After 1950. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011.
Press URL
Cornell Studies in Political Economy
Amazon
Twentieth-century Europe was an intense laboratory of capitalist experimentation. Confronted with economic booms and crises, technological revolutions, and economic globalization, Western Europe’s governments constantly explored alternative ways of managing domestic economic systems and international commerce. Bridging comparative and international political economy, Creative Reconstructions compellingly expands our understanding of the historic relationship between varieties of capitalism and international cooperation. Orfeo Fioretos places multilateral institutions at the center of the study of capitalism. He highlights the role played by governments’ multilateral strategies in shaping the national trajectories of capitalism in Great Britain, France, and Germany. Fioretos shows that membership in international organizations such as the European Union and its precursors was an integral innovation in the domestic management of capitalism that came to play a central, if varied, role in shaping the evolution of modern market economies.
Spanning six decades from the postwar period to the global crisis of 2008, Creative Reconstructions details the opportunities and constraints that multilateral engagements entailed for reforms in national financial, corporate governance, industrial relations, and innovation systems. In vivid analytical narratives, it shows how multilateral institutions served to reinforce and at times to undermine ambitious domestic reform programs. Creative Reconstructions deepens our understanding of modern capitalism in Europe and offers valuable lessons for regions beyond its borders.
Endorsements
"Creative Reconstructions is a masterful work of disciplined theoretical imagination and historical rigor. In the second half of the twentieth century, Western Europe experimented boldly with new institutional models to integrate domestic, global, and supranational forces of change. Orfeo Fioretos captures the deep politics that drove these experiments and helped shape their outcomes in Britain, France, and Germany. Creative Reconstructions sheds critical light on some of the most important political-economy choices that advanced and emerging economies will face in the coming decade.”— Steven Weber, University of California, Berkeley
"Creative Reconstructions is a groundbreaking work at the intersection of global and domestic political economy. Through carefully constructed arguments and detailed empirical analysis, Orfeo Fioretos shows how national and international institutions mediate the domestic distributional consequences of globalization and regional integration in Europe’s largest economies. This book is a must-read for scholars interested in capitalism, globalization, and the European Union."--James A. Caporaso, University of Washington
"Orfeo Fioretos’s book is path-breaking and highly ambitious. It is the first serious, coherent analysis of how governments in Europe’s largest economies build coalitions within the business community to reconfigure effective models of growth and competitiveness in the context of greater multilateral cooperation. Spanning six decades, this is the most impressive book I have read that integrates the heavily nationally biased comparative political economy literature and the international political economy literature devoted to economic multilateralism."--David Soskice, Duke University and University of Oxford
Reviews
Economic History Net (January 2012)
Perspectives on Politics
Comparative Political Studies
West European Politics
Choice
Press URL
Cornell Studies in Political Economy
Amazon
Twentieth-century Europe was an intense laboratory of capitalist experimentation. Confronted with economic booms and crises, technological revolutions, and economic globalization, Western Europe’s governments constantly explored alternative ways of managing domestic economic systems and international commerce. Bridging comparative and international political economy, Creative Reconstructions compellingly expands our understanding of the historic relationship between varieties of capitalism and international cooperation. Orfeo Fioretos places multilateral institutions at the center of the study of capitalism. He highlights the role played by governments’ multilateral strategies in shaping the national trajectories of capitalism in Great Britain, France, and Germany. Fioretos shows that membership in international organizations such as the European Union and its precursors was an integral innovation in the domestic management of capitalism that came to play a central, if varied, role in shaping the evolution of modern market economies.
Spanning six decades from the postwar period to the global crisis of 2008, Creative Reconstructions details the opportunities and constraints that multilateral engagements entailed for reforms in national financial, corporate governance, industrial relations, and innovation systems. In vivid analytical narratives, it shows how multilateral institutions served to reinforce and at times to undermine ambitious domestic reform programs. Creative Reconstructions deepens our understanding of modern capitalism in Europe and offers valuable lessons for regions beyond its borders.
Endorsements
"Creative Reconstructions is a masterful work of disciplined theoretical imagination and historical rigor. In the second half of the twentieth century, Western Europe experimented boldly with new institutional models to integrate domestic, global, and supranational forces of change. Orfeo Fioretos captures the deep politics that drove these experiments and helped shape their outcomes in Britain, France, and Germany. Creative Reconstructions sheds critical light on some of the most important political-economy choices that advanced and emerging economies will face in the coming decade.”— Steven Weber, University of California, Berkeley
"Creative Reconstructions is a groundbreaking work at the intersection of global and domestic political economy. Through carefully constructed arguments and detailed empirical analysis, Orfeo Fioretos shows how national and international institutions mediate the domestic distributional consequences of globalization and regional integration in Europe’s largest economies. This book is a must-read for scholars interested in capitalism, globalization, and the European Union."--James A. Caporaso, University of Washington
"Orfeo Fioretos’s book is path-breaking and highly ambitious. It is the first serious, coherent analysis of how governments in Europe’s largest economies build coalitions within the business community to reconfigure effective models of growth and competitiveness in the context of greater multilateral cooperation. Spanning six decades, this is the most impressive book I have read that integrates the heavily nationally biased comparative political economy literature and the international political economy literature devoted to economic multilateralism."--David Soskice, Duke University and University of Oxford
Reviews
Economic History Net (January 2012)
Perspectives on Politics
Comparative Political Studies
West European Politics
Choice