Wrestling with unevenness
Sino-American rivalry, state strategy and the reformation of German capitalism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23212895 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Julian Germann (0000-0001-8912-0655, University of Sussex, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 77-97 |
| Publication date | 2023-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Global Political Economy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2635-2257 • E-ISSN: 2635-2257 |
| Publisher | Bristol University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1332/wdgh8153 |
| OpenAlex | W4318540563 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 25 |
This article focuses on the case of Germany to demonstrate how the lens of ‘uneven and combined development’ (U&CD) can help critical scholars of Global Political Economy (GPE) make sense of a worldwide but nationally specific movement towards an augmented role for the state in the regulation of capitalism. The first section finds that the prevailing comparative-institutional literature suffers from a narrow conception of the international environment in which the German political economy is drifting in the direction of its main organisational rival – US-style neoliberalism. By contrast, the second section shows that the alternative lens of U&CD provides a richer picture of the systemic forces experienced by German state actors: they flow from a technologically leading US as well as a leapfrogging China, they increase competition but also present commercial opportunities, and they do not point towards freer markets but rather novel forms of state intervention that are best explored as a creative, if contested, process of ‘re-combination’. The third section details the structural, strategic and institutional reasons for why the German state cannot emulate either the US or China. It concludes that – in lieu of strong support from capital and labour and independent state capacities like the Chinese party apparatus or the US military-industry complex – German attempts to expand the remit of the state follow a substitutive process of ‘bricolage’ that patches together foreign and domestic techniques and a motley of special interests.
Capitalism · Competition (biology) · Economic system · Economics · German · Market economy · Neoliberalism (international relations) · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science) · Technocracy · Asian Industrial and Economic Development · International Development and Aid · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Classes in contemporary capitalism
State capitalism(s) redux? Theories, tensions, controversies
Making of Global Capitalism
Unwitting Architect
The Futures of European Capitalism
Introduction
International Organization
Germany’s Industrial strategy 2030, EU competition policy and the Crisis of New Constitutionalism. (Geo-)political economy of a contested paradigm shift
Adjusting to Globalization in Germany
China’s Uneven and Combined Development
Varieties of Capitalism, Varieties of Approaches
Global rivalries, corporate interests and Germany’s ‘National Industrial Strategy 2030’
Of economic whips and political necessities
Escaping Structuralism's Legacy
Models of Capitalism
Crashed
Conclusion
Surplus Germany
Institutional bricolage in times of crisis
Understanding 2016
Throwing out the ballast
Uneven and combined state capitalism
Responding to the China Challenge in Techno-nationalism
Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms
Swimming Against the Current
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |