SASE AnnualMeeting 2013,University of Milan, Italy

For more than a century now, states have intervened strongly to alleviate the social and economic consequences of crises in capitalism.New models of regulation, such as Keynesianism, have been invented to deal with capitalist contradictions: to socialize the huge losses booked by banks and large firms, change policy instruments,correct market failures, support regions in decline, transform labor market regulationsor createnew markets whilst supporting creative destruction. Crises inspire us to think in new ways about periods and varieties of capitalism, about regulation crises and dynamics and about the role, functions and characteristics of the state. At the same time, crises are a great source of tension, pushing political debates to the extreme, sparking waves of protest, and generating political pressures or antidemocratictrends that call into question the very legitimacy of the state. [Premier paragraphe