Systems, Institutional Complementarities and Politics: Various Methodological Considerations

Abstract

In this chapter, the two authors (Francois Combarnous and Eric Rougier) describe the empirical approach implemented throughout the different contributions of the book. The key assumption that variants of developing countries’ capitalist models can be characterized by a set of sector-related types of institutional governance is first formulated and elaborated. Then, the seven sectors to these governance sets are described and justified: labour, competition, social protection, education, and finance, standard in the comparative capitalism (CC) literature, to which agriculture and the environment have been added. Theoretical complementarities and possible trade-offs between these seven areas are then commented on, before the authors introduce the concepts of ex ante, ex post, progressive and regressive institutional complementarities in order to adapt the institutional complementarity theory to the specific context of developing countries. Ultimately, the theoretical articulation of economic and political institutions is described and the various consequences of this articulation for the analysis are drawn.