Institutionalist, regulationist and dependency approaches to transition countries' economic policies

Abstract

The chapter brings forward institutionalist and regulationist approaches to public policy. Arguing that these approaches offer a variety of middle-range concepts that can be directly applied to different policy fields, Becker illustrates this in an application of those theories to the economic policies of countries in transition from a socialist mode of production toward a capitalist economic system. He demonstrates how institutionalist and regulation theory approaches enable an analysis that focuses on the subordinate form of international integration and the resulting peripheral position of transition and post-transition economies in the European division of labour. Of special importance for these approaches is the relationship between growth models, the state, and economic policymaking. Continuities in economic development patterns and institutional structures of the different capitalist regimes are the home domain of institutionalist theories. Regulation theory places the emphasis on different forms of accumulation, making a fundamental distinction between productive and financialized accumulation. Accumulation, in turn, can be either introverted, i.e. primarily oriented towards the domestic market, or extraverted, i.e. heavily based on exports or imports of goods and capital. In combination with dependency theory, these approaches provide the tools to explore the asymmetric relations between core and peripheral economies. In a comparison of institutionalist approaches with regulation theory, Becker points out that the latter places more emphasis on crises as junctures in economic policy. The broader conceptualization of lines of social conflict, power relations, and the state makes it possible to use regulation theory together with dependency theory to more systematically analyse shifts in the relationship between different capital fractions, conflicts over strategic state selectivity, and resulting economic policies.