Abstract
Ben Clift provides an innovative textbook that integrates numerous accounts and perspectives within the study of political economy. The book focuses especially on highlighting and explaining the linkages between political economy, international political economy (IPE) and comparative political economy (CPE). In doing so, the book successfully fills a gap between IPE and CPE, interpreting the historical evolution and transformation of state-market relations, and providing theoretically and empirically rich explanations for those transformations.
Chapters 1 and 2 justify the importance of historical change in state/market relations and contemporary capitalist restructuring, locating the discussion within the context of theoretical debates in political economy. Clift situates CPE as a field of study within classical political economy, tracing especially the influence of key thinkers, including Adam Smith, Karl Marx and Friedrich List. In doing so, he grounds the history of political economy in the emergence of modern capitalism and market societies, before subsequently integrating IPE and CPE by emphasising the importance of the analysis of both international and domestic forces, and discussing how international influences are mediated and channeled in domestic contexts.
Chapters 3 to 7 introduce the theories and approaches that comprise CPE, again highlighting their emergence from classical political economy. Chapter 3 introduces Adam Smith and classical liberal political economy, which emphasises the importance of free market principles. The chapter also examines economic nationalism by introducing Listian political economy, in which List highlights the importance of nations as intermediaries between individuals and humanity, and the way in which this was earlier ignored by classical political economists. Clift goes on to contrast Smithian and Listian approaches with Marxian political economy on one hand, on the other, to highlight the different understanding of wealth, value, and the concepts of capital, capitalist market and exploitation contained within Marx’s work, contrasted with both liberal and nationalist understandings. Not only does Clift describe Marxian political economy concisely and clearly, but he also develops the argument that Marx’s formation of the problem of historical specificity is something that can and should be adopted within theories of CPE. Clift’s analysis of Marx therefore brings to the fore the potentiality for Marx’s insights, especially when integrated with other theories, to understand state-market relations, social relations and structure, and how and why human beings act in the way they do.
Chapter 4 describes disciplinary politics and genealogy by introducing debates on methods between protagonists and schools that include the German Historical School, Marx and historical materialism, marginalist political economy, Hayek and Keynes. Clift introduces these debates with a specific focus on the way in which CPE has emerged, and the focus and research questions that have developed at its core. In Chapter 5, the book turns to consider the influence of institutional analysis upon CPE, focusing in particular upon the varieties of capitalism (VoC) literature. This highlights the significance of institutions and approaches that examine the role of political, societal, and economic institutions in studying political economy. The strength of Clift’s analysis of CPE is here particularly evident; that is, his ability to discuss, contextualise and integrate both contemporary and classical debates in a way that shows considerable attention to state-of-the-art developments within the literature.
Chapter 6 moves to a focus on ‘interest-based approaches’ to CPE, which are considered in terms of their exploration of the question ‘Who benefits?’. Here, Clift introduces Susan Strange and her approach to political economy, with a focus on the study of power. He goes on to update the discussion with a consideration of the contemporary development of rationalism, including interest-based rational choice approaches which demonstrate the potential for interest-based approaches to political economy to consider individuals outside of the homo economicus framework. Chapter 7 introduces ideational analysis, discussing the impact of economic ideas and shifts in prevailing understandings of political economy. Here, Clift demonstrates how economic orthodoxies are contingent historical phenomena influenced by prevailing ideational parameters.
The strength of Clift’s book is his ability to introduce a broad range of theories and perspectives alongside a discussion of their inter-relationship and historical development, not only in a highly readable way but also in an innovative and sophisticated manner. As demonstrated in Chapters 1 to 7, Clift highlights how classical political economy influenced CPE and how state-marker relations are at its core. He sheds light on the inter-relations between CPE and IPE and the necessity of thinking of national economies by locating them in their international context. He not only describes theories comprehensively, but also demonstrates them in a way that makes their inter-relations explicit whilst also making clear the benefits of approaching the range of theoretical approaches on offer with an open mind, in order to achieve a stronger analysis of international and national markets and how they interact with states. Another highlight of the book is Clift’s refusal to engage with theories dogmatically, encouraging readers to consider each of the various routes into political economy analysis. In doing so, he enables us to rethink and reengage with theories and perspectives that might otherwise be excluded. This strength is also evident in the latter half of the book, in which Clift applies the theories and perspectives introduced up to Chapter 7 to a range of empirical cases.
Chapters 8 to 11 therefore introduce empirical cases analysed by integrating the theories introduced in the earlier chapters. Institutionalist approaches – especially varieties of capitalism – are applied to a discussion of Japan’s developmental state and the more recent transformation of Japan’s political economy. In doing this, Clift outlines the differences between the Japanese and neoliberal models of political economy. The VoC literature is employed to highlight the continuity and uniqueness of Japanese capitalism. Here, Clift might have included more of a discussion of some of the limits of the institutionalist approach, perhaps by introducing some of the advances that have been made in recent debates on Japan’s political economy through the introduction of Marxist and regulation approaches, which tend to focus more on the instability and liberalisation of Japan’s labour market (Shibata, forthcoming). In Chapter 11, Clift turns to welfare restructuring through a discussion of classical political economy and its focus on inequality. He also locates debates over welfare in the nexus of political intervention and the market, examining Marx’s view of the incompatibility of welfare and capitalism as well as introducing comparative welfare capitalism by integrating VoC into the discussion. In doing so, Clift illustrates well the benefits to be gained through the adoption of a range of methods to analyse different models of capitalism and state/market relations in the study of welfare restructuring. In Chapter 12 and in the concluding chapter, Clift develops further the comparative method to be used in the study of CPE, highlighting further the methodological pluralism of CPE.
This book will be suitable for adoption by a wide range of readers and teachers. Its readability makes it suitable for newcomers to CPE, while its comprehensive approach to CPE allows readers in the field of political economy and international political economy to re-engage with theories and perspectives in a new light. Empirical and comparative cases include a focus on the state, corporate governance, finance and welfare, each of which illustrates the applicability of the theories introduced earlier in the book. The book, therefore, is extremely valuable in providing an introduction to the range of tools used in the study of CPE. It is comprehensive in its coverage of the theoretical developments in CPE, and insightful in its applications of these to contemporary cases. It is readable yet informative, and suitable for a wide range of readers.