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Fast and Curious: 'The Swiss Development Puzzle'. The Institutional Roots of the Success of Industrialization

When: —
Venue: Online

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We are pleased to announce the 2nd Seminar Series on Governance, Institutions, and Sustainability jointly hosted by the Centre for Political Economy and Institutional Studies and by the Birkbeck Responsible Business Centre, within the Birkbeck Business School.    


In our rapidly evolving world, the intricate web connecting governance, institutions, and sustainability has become increasingly prominent. We invite scholars, researchers, and practitioners to enhance this very important debate and to join us in exploring the profound intertwining of these critical elements at our upcoming seminar series.  

 

Abstract

The article investigates the institutional roots of the Swiss organized capitalism that contributed to the success of its industrialization and its subsequent economic growth during the second industrial revolution (1880–1913). Recent literature underlines the link between public and private actors and shows that the second industrial revolution in Switzerland owed its success to state-led organized capitalism. If the majority of studies analysed in detail one or more components of the Swiss organized capitalism, to our knowledge, there are no works seeking to explain the (institutional) construction of this organized capitalism by mobilizing a large number of factors in a single theoretical frame of reference. Using the Regulation Theory approach, this article sheds light on the institutional construction of the Swiss organized capitalism. We show that it rested on original institutional arrangements driven by the necessity to survive on external markets. We therefore demonstrate that these arrangements also enabled Switzerland to successfully deal with the production of essential public goods supporting both industrialization and national social bonds required to promote political unity.

 

Speaker

Guillaume Vallet (Université Grenoble Alpes, France)

 

Convener/Organiser: Dr Luca Andriani

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Speakers
  • Guillaume Vallet (Université Grenoble Alpes, France)