German Capitalism

Most of my work on political economy deals, in one way or another, with Germany and German capitalism in international comparison. Much of it was written at a time when Germany was regarded abroad as particularly successful economically. It was widely assumed that this was due in no small part to its unique institutions, above all its corporatist labor relations. My first synthesis, which emerged from the context of international research on “varieties of capitalism”, was the 1997 essay on “German Capitalism ...”. The two essays coauthored with Kozo Yamamura occupy a special place; they served as introductions to the two volumes that emerged from a research project we organized together on the differences and similarities between Germany and Japan—the two models of success at that time. In later years, my study of the “German model” increasingly blended into my work on Europe and the EU.