Assistant Professor Donato Di Carlo

This course is available on the MSc in China in Comparative Perspective, MSc in Human Resources and Organisations (International Employment Relations/CIPD), MSc in Political Economy of Europe, MSc in Political Economy of Europe (LSE and Fudan) , MSc in Political Economy of Europe (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Political Science (Conflict Studies and Comparative Politics), MSc in Political Science (Global Politics), MSc in Public Administration and Government (LSE and Peking University) and MSc in Public Policy and Administration. This course is not available as an outside option.

This course has a limited number of places (it is controlled access) and demand is typically very high. Priority is given to students from the European Institute, so students from outside this programme may not get a place.

The course studies capitalist systems in Europe drawing on literatures in comparative and international political economy, economic sociology, economics and political science. It introduces the key conceptual and methodological tools of comparative capitalism studies and how they can help to analyse the structure and dynamics of the main European models of capitalism. We will then use comparative perspectives on capitalism to discuss the contemporary challenges facing the advanced economies of Europe: financial crises, the green transition, the changing role of the state in the economy, the 'polycrisis' of Covid-19, security challenges and the climate emergency, and other contemporary themes. The underlying theme of the course is to understand how European economies have developed and reshaped themselves along with changing global circumstances in recent decades, and discuss how economic policies and institutions can address the dilemmas facing market economies in the 21st century.

This course will be delivered through weekly lectures and seminars totalling a minimum of 25 hours during Winter Term. This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

Students will write a short 1500-word essay during the Winter term. Students will also develop their summative essay plan with the teacher in Winter term.

• Diminishing Returns. The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation. Edited by Luccio Baccaro, Mark Blyth and Jonas Pontusson. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2022
• Peter A Hall & David Soskice (Eds), Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Competitiveness. Oxford University Press, 2001;
• Crouch, Colin, Capitalist Diversity and Change, Oxford University Press, 2005;
• Hancké, Bob (ed.), 2009, Debating Varieties of Capitalism: A Reader, Oxford UP.
• Wolfgang Streeck, (2011) E Pluribus Unum? Varieties and Commonalities of Capitalism, MPifG Discussion Paper No. 10/12;
• Natasha van der Zwan (2014) Making sense of financialization, Socio Economic Review, 12: 99-129;
• Kathleen Thelen, (2014) Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity, Cambridge University Press;
• Colin Hay, Does Capitalism Still Come in Varieties? Review of International Political Economy, Volume 27, 2020.

Essay (100%, 3300 words) in the ST.

Essay questions will be distributed in early Winter Term, and essay outlines and other relevant questions will be developed with the course convener or seminar teacher.