The architecture of markets : an economic sociology of twenty-first-century capitalist societies / Neil Fligstein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fligstein, Neil.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Capitalism--Social aspects.

Capitalism.

Economics--Sociological aspects.

Economics.

Capitalism--Social aspects--United States.

United States--Economic conditions--1981-.

United States.

Economic conditions.

Physical Description:

xiv, 274 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [2001]

Summary:

Market societies have created more wealth, and more opportunities for more people, than any other system of social organization in history. Yet we still have a rudimentary understanding of how markets themselves are social constructions that require extensive institutional support. This groundbreaking work seeks to fill this gap, to make sense of modern capitalism by developing a sociological theory of market institutions. Addressing the unruly dynamism that capitalism brings with it, leading sociologist Neil Fligstein argues that the basic drift of any one market and its actors, even allowing for competition, is toward stabilization.

The Architecture of Markets represents a major and timely step beyond recent, largely empirical studies that oppose the neoclassical model of perfect competition but provide sparse theory toward a coherent economic sociology. Fligstein offers this theory. With it he interprets not just globalization and the information economy, but developments more specific to American capitalism in the past two decades -- among them, the 1980s merger movement. He makes new inroads into the "theory of fields," which links the formation of markets and firms to the problems of stability. His political-cultural approach explains why governments remain crucial to markets and why so many national variations of capitalism endure. States help make stable markets possible by, for example, establishing the rule of law and adjudicating the class struggle. State-building and market-building go hand in hand.

Fligstein shows that market actors depend mightily upon governments and the members of society for the social conditions that produce wealth. He demonstrates that systems favoring more social justice and redistribution can yield stable markets and economic growth as readily as less egalitarian systems. This book will surely join the classics on capitalism. Economists, sociologists, policymakers, and all those interested in what makes markets function as they do will read it for many years to come.

Contents:

1. Bringing Sociology Back In 3

A Critique of the Existing Literature in the Sociology of Markets 6

Theoretical Questions for a Sociology of Markets 10

A Political-Cultural Approach 15

Normative Implications of the Political-Cultural Approach to the Sociology of Markets 21

2. Markets as Institutions 27

Market Institutions: Basic Definitions 28

State Building and Market Building 36

Power in Policy Domains and Market Institutions 42

3. The Politics of the Creation of Market Institutions 45

Political Structuring of Labor Market Institutions 53

Policy Domains and Market Regulation in Real Societies 56

Stability and Complexity 59

Implications for Research 62

4. The Theory of Fields and the Problem of Market Formation 67

Markets as Fields 67

The Goal of Action in Stable Markets 70

The Problem of Change and Stability in Markets 75

Links between Market Formation and States 86

Some Macro Implications of the Theory of Fields 89

Globalization and Market Processes 94

5. The Logic of Employment Systems 101

Employment Systems as Institutional Projects 103

Variations and Transformations in Employment Systems 107

The Dynamics of Systems of Employment Relations 108

Insights into Comparative Employment Systems 111

Research Agendas 117

6. The Dynamics of U.S. Firms and the Issue of Ownership and Control in the 1970s 123

Review of the Literature 124

Management versus Owner Control 125

Bank Control 126

Market Dynamics and Management Control 128

Hypotheses 130

Data and Methods 132

Results 136

Discussion and Conclusions 144

7. The Rise of the Shareholder Value Conception of the Firm and the Merger Movement in the 1980s 147

What Is to Be Explained? 150

Finance Economics 151

Manager, Owner, and Bank Control 153

The Crisis of the Finance Conception of Control and the Rise of the Shareholder Value Conception of Control 155

Hypotheses 157

Data and Methods 158

Results 162

8. Corporate Control in Capitalist Societies 170

Economic Theories and Mechanisms 172

Sociological Theories of Control 176

Comparative Cases 181

9. Globalization 191

Definitions of Globalization 193

Critique of Globalization Arguments 195

The Slow Expansion and Unevenness of Global Trade 196

Change or Continuity in the Organization of Production? 203

Does Globalization Cause Deindustrialization and Inequality? 206

Politics, Governments, and Financial Markets 209

Trade, Competition, Industrial Policy, and the Welfare State 213

Globalization and Neoliberalism as an American Project 220

Two Tales of One Industry 223

Stability and Efficiency 228

Efficiency, Stability, and Equity 231.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [247]-267) and index.

ISBN:

0691005222

OCLC:

45879536