The Economy and the State
Résumé
Among the propositions the new economic sociology hasformulated over the last four decades, only a few canreach a level of consensus as high as the one concerningthe role of the state within western economies: far frombeing opposed to the economic sphere of life, as sometraditions of thought might have put it in economics (Hayek,1944) or political science (Lindblom, 1977), the role ofthe state appears to be decisive if one is to understandhow markets evolve (Fligstein, 2001), how firms areshaped and change (Roy, 1997; Fligstein, 1990), and howprofessions consolidate or lose territory (Abbott, 1988).This consensus has opened research questions that thisissue 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)
