The Economy and the State
Résumé
Among the propositions the new economic sociology has
formulated over the last four decades, only a few can
reach a level of consensus as high as the one concerning
the role of the state within western economies: far from
being opposed to the economic sphere of life, as some
traditions of thought might have put it in economics (Hayek,
1944) or political science (Lindblom, 1977), the role of
the state appears to be decisive if one is to understand
how markets evolve (Fligstein, 2001), how firms are
shaped and change (Roy, 1997; Fligstein, 1990), and how
professions consolidate or lose territory (Abbott, 1988).
This consensus has opened research questions that this
issue of the newsletter explores: how should “the state”
be conceptualized? How can it be empirically grasped?
What has been its role in different national settings?
(premières lignes de l'introduction)