Überblick
The paper reviews the origins of the comparative study of capitalism and of the diverse
approaches applied to it in contemporary political economy. It distinguishes four
models accounting for differences in the institutional make-up of national capitalist
economies, which it refers to as the social embeddedness, power resource, historicalinstitutionalist,
and rationalist-functionalist model, respectively. Special attention is
given to the rationalist-functionalist account of capitalist variety and its reception in
the research literature. The paper concludes with remarks on the likely effect of the
global financial crisis after 2007 on theories of political economy in general and of
"varieties of capitalism? in particular. It argues that in future the commonalities and interdependencies
of national capitalisms deserve and are likely to receive more attention
than their differences.