Open AccessOrchestrators of coordination: Towards a new role of the state in coordinated capitalism?
Author(s) -
Marius R. Busemeyer,
Martin B. Carstensen,
Patrick Emmenegger
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
european journal of industrial relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.251
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1461-7129
pISSN - 0959-6801
DOI - 10.1177/09596801211062556
Subject(s) - capitalism , vocational education , scholarship , state (computer science) , liberalization , coordination failure , core (optical fiber) , interdependence , market economy , business , crowding out , intervention (counseling) , economics , economic system , political science , economic growth , monetary economics , microeconomics , psychology , materials science , algorithm , psychiatry , politics , computer science , law , composite material
Liberalization poses significant challenges for the continued provision of collective goods within coordinated market economies (CME). Extant scholarship suggests two dominant sets of responses. Either CMEs continue to rely on employer coordination, but only for a privileged core, leading to dualization. Or, in cases where the state enjoys high capacity, the state instead compensates for liberalization but ends up crowding out employer coordination. In both cases, the result is decreasing employer coordination. We argue that in CMEs, the state may also play the role of “orchestrator” by supporting the revitalization of employer coordination. It does so through the deployment of ideational and institutional resources that mobilize employers’ associations on a voluntary basis. Applying our framework to a core area of coordinated capitalism, vocational education and training, we show that in both Germany and Switzerland, this indirect and soft form of state intervention was instrumental for turning around their crisis-stricken vocational training systems.