Wolfgang Streeck studies labour and capital in advanced capitalist economies and offers new insights into the social and political bases of economic performance. The chapters of the book examine the institutional conditions for a high-skill and high-wage economy; the social regulation of employment contracts; differences in the structure of interest associations of business and labour; the organization of small businesses in Germany; co-determination in German industry; the competitive success of the German automobile industry; and the influence of European integration on interest representation in Europe. Proceeding from the insight that markets and rational economic action perform best if embedded in culturally and politically generated opportunities and constraints, Streeck offers a rationale for positive political intervention in post-socialist capitalist market economies. The book is intended for researchers, academics and students of political economy, political science, industrial relations, business and management, and organization studies and sociology.

Market liberalism and state interventionism are both challenged as modes of democratic government by this book. It suggests that the development of private interest governments might be a more viable policy alternative for the future. It also questions whether the state could devolve certain public policy responsibilities to interest associations in specific economic sectors. The book focuses specifically on interest associations in a disaggregated, rather than global, approach to economics and politics. Ten Western industrialized countries are covered, subjects ranging from advertising with self-regulation, private accountancy regulation and the British voluntary sector to four comparative papers on the corporatist arrangements in the governance of the dairy industry.