Dr A Innes, COW. J210 and Dr Marco Simoni, COW. J103

For MSc European Political Economy, MSc European Studies: Ideas and Identities, MSc Management, MSc Public Policy and Administration, MSc Public Policy and Administration (Research), MPA Programme (all streams), MSc China in Comparative Perspective, LSE-PKU Double Degree in Public Administration and Government and LSE-Sciences Po Double Degree in European Studies. Students on MSc Global Politics who wish to take this course must seek approval from the teachers responsible.

This is a capped course (40 students). Students are required to obtain permission from the teaching department to take this course.

The course consists of two parts. In the first part we will discuss the basic arguments and methodological considerations of the Varieties of Capitalism literature and conduct a comparative analysis of the core issue areas in the political economy of contemporary capitalism: how capital, labour and product markets are structured. The second part will build on these thematic treatments to discuss the structure of and dynamics of the main Western, Southern and Central European models of capitalism. In week 2 of the summer term, there will be a review lecture and seminars.

2 x 1 hour lecture (week 1, LT); 10 x 2 hour seminars (weeks 1-10 LT).

Peter A Hall & David Soskice (Eds), Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Competitiveness. Oxford University Press, 2001; Hancké, Bob, Martin Rhodes and Mark Thatcher (eds.) 2007. Beyond Varieties of Capitalism: Conflict, contradiction and complementarities in the European Economy. (Oxford UP 2007) (henceforth HRT); Crouch, Colin, Capitalist Diversity and Change, Oxford University Press, 2005; Hancké, Bob (ed.), 2009, Debating Varieties of Capitalism: A Reader, Oxford UP.

One two-hour written examination in ST (100%)