Convergence within national diversity : a comparative perspective on the regulatory state in finance

The institutional governance approach sees national economies embedded in a bundle of non-market types of coordination (e.g. corporate hierarchies, networks, associations and the state). Governance oriented research explores configurations of governance types in sectoral, regional and national systems of productions and asks for their comparative advantages. The growing integration of markets, however, seems to reduce capacities for capitalist diversity and to benefit countries with market-like organisation of their economy. While comparative governance approaches still assume stability of national economic contexts, a recent, more on Germany centred debate discovers substantial change in the governance of political economies. The following article presents an overview of the course of the governance debate and discusses advantages and disadvantages of the "varieties of capitalism" approach. The paper argues in favor of a more process- and actor-centred research perspective which focuses on forces, mechanisms and dimensions of change in capitalist institutions.