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Papers by Kathleen Thelen
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Nov 11, 2021
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Sep 6, 2004
Previous chapters have focused primarily on explaining variations across the four countries that ... more Previous chapters have focused primarily on explaining variations across the four countries that are the subject of this study, and have traced the roots of important differences in vocational training institutions back to the political dynamics and coalitions that were forged around the turn of the century and into the 1920s. This chapter takes up the German case again and tracks its further development through National Socialism and into the post-World War II period. This involves a shift in focus, away from the origins of cross-national differences to variations over time within a single country. This shift allows us to address a related but distinct set of questions and theoretical issues concerning institutional stability and change. As discussed in Chapter 1, the most commonly invoked metaphor for institutional change is the punctuated equilibrium model as it was adapted from the work of evolutionary biologists and interpreted for politics by Krasner in 1988 (Krasner 1988). This model emphasizes long stretches of institutional “stasis” periodically punctuated by episodes of relatively rapid innovation. In most treatments, innovation occurs as a result of some kind of exogenous shock that disrupts the stable reproduction of institutions and provides an opening for substantial institutional reconfiguration. This view of political and institutional change is pervasive, finding expression in a good deal of the literature on “critical junctures” as well as some treatments of path dependence. This kind of model captures one important mode of change in political life.
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Sep 25, 1992
▪ Abstract This article provides an overview of recent developments in historical institutionalis... more ▪ Abstract This article provides an overview of recent developments in historical institutionalism. First, it reviews some distinctions that are commonly drawn between the “historical” and the “rational choice” variants of institutionalism and shows that there are ...
Socio-economic Review, Nov 26, 2009
"Dynamic. Creative. Restless. Risk-taking." These are words that, according to Kathleen... more "Dynamic. Creative. Restless. Risk-taking." These are words that, according to Kathleen Thelen, not only describe capitalism but also the scholar who in his unique way has dedicated decades to understanding it
World Politics, 2020
ABSTRACTRecent years have seen a revival of debates about the role of business and the sources of... more ABSTRACTRecent years have seen a revival of debates about the role of business and the sources of business power in postindustrial political economies. Scholarly accounts commonly distinguish between structural sources of business power, connected to its privileged position in capitalist economies, and instrumental sources, related to direct forms of lobbying by business actors. The authors argue that this distinction overlooks an important third source of business power, which they conceptualize as institutional business power. Institutional business power results when state actors delegate public functions to private business actors. Over time, through policy feedback and lock-in effects, institutional business power contributes to an asymmetrical dependence of the state on the continued commitment of private business actors. This article elaborates the theoretical argument behind this claim, providing empirical examples of growing institutional business power in education in Germ...
World Politics, Jul 1, 2020
Perspectives on Politics, 2015
How Institutions Evolve
This chapter extends the analysis and the line of argumentation developed for Germany and Britain... more This chapter extends the analysis and the line of argumentation developed for Germany and Britain to two further cases, Japan and the United States. Japan provides an important counterpoint to Germany, for there, too, firm-based training rests on institutional arrangements that ameliorate costly competition among firms and mitigate the collective action problems typically associated with private-sector training. Both German and Japanese employers overcame their collective action problems in the area of training, but they did so in radically different ways: in Germany through the construction of a national system that generates a plentiful supply of workers with portable skills, and in Japan, through plant-based training in the context of stronger internal labor markets. Applying the terms introduced in Chapter 1, we note a broad difference between skill formation regimes based on “collectivism” in the German case and “segmentalism” or “autarky” in the Japanese case. The other case considered in this chapter, the United States, provides a useful counterpoint to that of the British. In both countries, apprenticeship was a source of conflict between employers and craft unions, and therefore, strongly contested across the class divide. As in Britain, so too in the United States only in rare cases (the construction industry is an example) could an accommodation be reached that stabilized coordination across firms and between organized labor and employers in the area of apprentice training. The U.S. case also shares some similarities with Japan, however.
World Politics, Jul 1, 2020
This volume brings together leading political scientists to explore the distinctive features of t... more This volume brings together leading political scientists to explore the distinctive features of the American political economy. The introductory chapter provides a comparatively informed framework for analyzing the interplay of markets and politics in the United States, focusing on three key factors: uniquely fragmented and decentralized political institutions; an interest group landscape characterized by weak labor organizations and powerful, parochial business groups; and an entrenched legacy of ethno-racial divisions embedded in both government and markets. Subsequent chapters look at the fundamental dynamics that result, including the place of the courts in multi-venue politics, the political economy of labor, sectional conflict within and across cities and regions, the consolidation of financial markets and corporate monopoly and monopsony power, and the ongoing rise of the knowledge economy. Together, the chapters provide a revealing new map of the politics of democratic capit...
This essay explores the question of how fonnal institutions change. J Despite the importance assi... more This essay explores the question of how fonnal institutions change. J Despite the importance assigned by many scholars to the role of institutions in structuring political life, the issue of how these institutions are themselves shaped and reconfigured over time has not received the attention it is due. In the 1970s and 1980s, a good deal of comparative institutionalist work centered on comparative statics and was concerned with demonstrating the ways in which different institutional arrangements drove divergent political and policy outcomes (e.g., Katzenstein 1978). In addition, scholarship in the comparative historical tradition has yielded important insights into the genesis of divergent (usually national) trajectories. Works in this vein include some classics such as Gerschenkron (1962), Moore (1966), and Shefter (1977), but also significant recent contributions such as Collier and Collier (1991), Skocpol (1992), Spruyt (1994), Ernnan (1997), Gould (1999), and Huber and Stephens...
Law and contemporary problems, 2020
In the literature on political economy and historical sociology, American exceptionalism has typi... more In the literature on political economy and historical sociology, American exceptionalism has typically been framed as a question of why American labor unions appeared so weak and so conservative compared to their European counterparts. The usual answers point to American political culture, characteristics of the working class, features of American political parties or the party system, or aspects of the American state. However, by posing the question as an inquiry into what is different about American labor, scholars have overlooked the possibility that what is exceptional about the United States may have more to do with the distinctive features of American employers rather than of its unions or its working class. This Article attempts to fill that gap by bringing a comparative perspective to bear on an underexplored aspect of American exceptionalism: the peculiar features of American employers and the legal framework regulating firm competition in which they historically developed....
The American Political Economy, 2021
The American Political Economy, 2021
Politics & Society, 2020
A large literature on urban politics documents the connection between metropolitan fragmentation ... more A large literature on urban politics documents the connection between metropolitan fragmentation and inequality. This article situates the United States comparatively to explore the structural features of local governance that underpin this connection. Examining five metropolitan areas in North America and Europe, the article identifies two distinct dimensions of fragmentation: (a) fragmentation through jurisdictional proliferation (dividing regions into increasing numbers of governments) and (b) fragmentation through resource hoarding (via exclusion, municipal parochialism, and fiscal competition). This research reveals how distinctive the United States is in the ways it combines institutional arrangements that facilitate metropolitan fragmentation (through jurisdictional proliferation) and those that reward such fragmentation (through resource-hoarding opportunities). Non-US cases furnish examples of policies that reduce jurisdictional proliferation or remove resource-hoarding opp...
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Nov 11, 2021
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Sep 6, 2004
Previous chapters have focused primarily on explaining variations across the four countries that ... more Previous chapters have focused primarily on explaining variations across the four countries that are the subject of this study, and have traced the roots of important differences in vocational training institutions back to the political dynamics and coalitions that were forged around the turn of the century and into the 1920s. This chapter takes up the German case again and tracks its further development through National Socialism and into the post-World War II period. This involves a shift in focus, away from the origins of cross-national differences to variations over time within a single country. This shift allows us to address a related but distinct set of questions and theoretical issues concerning institutional stability and change. As discussed in Chapter 1, the most commonly invoked metaphor for institutional change is the punctuated equilibrium model as it was adapted from the work of evolutionary biologists and interpreted for politics by Krasner in 1988 (Krasner 1988). This model emphasizes long stretches of institutional “stasis” periodically punctuated by episodes of relatively rapid innovation. In most treatments, innovation occurs as a result of some kind of exogenous shock that disrupts the stable reproduction of institutions and provides an opening for substantial institutional reconfiguration. This view of political and institutional change is pervasive, finding expression in a good deal of the literature on “critical junctures” as well as some treatments of path dependence. This kind of model captures one important mode of change in political life.
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Sep 25, 1992
▪ Abstract This article provides an overview of recent developments in historical institutionalis... more ▪ Abstract This article provides an overview of recent developments in historical institutionalism. First, it reviews some distinctions that are commonly drawn between the “historical” and the “rational choice” variants of institutionalism and shows that there are ...
Socio-economic Review, Nov 26, 2009
"Dynamic. Creative. Restless. Risk-taking." These are words that, according to Kathleen... more "Dynamic. Creative. Restless. Risk-taking." These are words that, according to Kathleen Thelen, not only describe capitalism but also the scholar who in his unique way has dedicated decades to understanding it
World Politics, 2020
ABSTRACTRecent years have seen a revival of debates about the role of business and the sources of... more ABSTRACTRecent years have seen a revival of debates about the role of business and the sources of business power in postindustrial political economies. Scholarly accounts commonly distinguish between structural sources of business power, connected to its privileged position in capitalist economies, and instrumental sources, related to direct forms of lobbying by business actors. The authors argue that this distinction overlooks an important third source of business power, which they conceptualize as institutional business power. Institutional business power results when state actors delegate public functions to private business actors. Over time, through policy feedback and lock-in effects, institutional business power contributes to an asymmetrical dependence of the state on the continued commitment of private business actors. This article elaborates the theoretical argument behind this claim, providing empirical examples of growing institutional business power in education in Germ...
World Politics, Jul 1, 2020
Perspectives on Politics, 2015
How Institutions Evolve
This chapter extends the analysis and the line of argumentation developed for Germany and Britain... more This chapter extends the analysis and the line of argumentation developed for Germany and Britain to two further cases, Japan and the United States. Japan provides an important counterpoint to Germany, for there, too, firm-based training rests on institutional arrangements that ameliorate costly competition among firms and mitigate the collective action problems typically associated with private-sector training. Both German and Japanese employers overcame their collective action problems in the area of training, but they did so in radically different ways: in Germany through the construction of a national system that generates a plentiful supply of workers with portable skills, and in Japan, through plant-based training in the context of stronger internal labor markets. Applying the terms introduced in Chapter 1, we note a broad difference between skill formation regimes based on “collectivism” in the German case and “segmentalism” or “autarky” in the Japanese case. The other case considered in this chapter, the United States, provides a useful counterpoint to that of the British. In both countries, apprenticeship was a source of conflict between employers and craft unions, and therefore, strongly contested across the class divide. As in Britain, so too in the United States only in rare cases (the construction industry is an example) could an accommodation be reached that stabilized coordination across firms and between organized labor and employers in the area of apprentice training. The U.S. case also shares some similarities with Japan, however.
World Politics, Jul 1, 2020
This volume brings together leading political scientists to explore the distinctive features of t... more This volume brings together leading political scientists to explore the distinctive features of the American political economy. The introductory chapter provides a comparatively informed framework for analyzing the interplay of markets and politics in the United States, focusing on three key factors: uniquely fragmented and decentralized political institutions; an interest group landscape characterized by weak labor organizations and powerful, parochial business groups; and an entrenched legacy of ethno-racial divisions embedded in both government and markets. Subsequent chapters look at the fundamental dynamics that result, including the place of the courts in multi-venue politics, the political economy of labor, sectional conflict within and across cities and regions, the consolidation of financial markets and corporate monopoly and monopsony power, and the ongoing rise of the knowledge economy. Together, the chapters provide a revealing new map of the politics of democratic capit...
This essay explores the question of how fonnal institutions change. J Despite the importance assi... more This essay explores the question of how fonnal institutions change. J Despite the importance assigned by many scholars to the role of institutions in structuring political life, the issue of how these institutions are themselves shaped and reconfigured over time has not received the attention it is due. In the 1970s and 1980s, a good deal of comparative institutionalist work centered on comparative statics and was concerned with demonstrating the ways in which different institutional arrangements drove divergent political and policy outcomes (e.g., Katzenstein 1978). In addition, scholarship in the comparative historical tradition has yielded important insights into the genesis of divergent (usually national) trajectories. Works in this vein include some classics such as Gerschenkron (1962), Moore (1966), and Shefter (1977), but also significant recent contributions such as Collier and Collier (1991), Skocpol (1992), Spruyt (1994), Ernnan (1997), Gould (1999), and Huber and Stephens...
Law and contemporary problems, 2020
In the literature on political economy and historical sociology, American exceptionalism has typi... more In the literature on political economy and historical sociology, American exceptionalism has typically been framed as a question of why American labor unions appeared so weak and so conservative compared to their European counterparts. The usual answers point to American political culture, characteristics of the working class, features of American political parties or the party system, or aspects of the American state. However, by posing the question as an inquiry into what is different about American labor, scholars have overlooked the possibility that what is exceptional about the United States may have more to do with the distinctive features of American employers rather than of its unions or its working class. This Article attempts to fill that gap by bringing a comparative perspective to bear on an underexplored aspect of American exceptionalism: the peculiar features of American employers and the legal framework regulating firm competition in which they historically developed....
The American Political Economy, 2021
The American Political Economy, 2021
Politics & Society, 2020
A large literature on urban politics documents the connection between metropolitan fragmentation ... more A large literature on urban politics documents the connection between metropolitan fragmentation and inequality. This article situates the United States comparatively to explore the structural features of local governance that underpin this connection. Examining five metropolitan areas in North America and Europe, the article identifies two distinct dimensions of fragmentation: (a) fragmentation through jurisdictional proliferation (dividing regions into increasing numbers of governments) and (b) fragmentation through resource hoarding (via exclusion, municipal parochialism, and fiscal competition). This research reveals how distinctive the United States is in the ways it combines institutional arrangements that facilitate metropolitan fragmentation (through jurisdictional proliferation) and those that reward such fragmentation (through resource-hoarding opportunities). Non-US cases furnish examples of policies that reduce jurisdictional proliferation or remove resource-hoarding opp...