Structural Forms and Growth Regimes of the Post-Fordist Era

A theoretical anlysis of contemporary institutional changes in the developed economies is attempted in order to characterize what a post fordist growth regime could be. One starts to recall some stylized facts about the present growth regime, i.e. about the contemporary dynamics of productivity on one side and of demand formation on the other side. We then discuss the main theoretical tools provided by the Regulation theory to analyse the institutional nexus which frames the growth regimes. The analytical framework of institutional change that we derive insist on the predominance at each period of one of the five structural forms that are distinguished by the Regulation School. As did the dynamics of institutional changes with the wage labor relationships in the previous period, today's evolutions of the forms of competition (broadly taken) condition all institutional changes. This gives us a general grid to define the features of a post Fordist regime. Still differences in history and structures leave room for sizeable differentiation in the national trajectories of the developed economies, all the more so that competition between nation States much prevent them to launch the structural policies that would be relevant with the new regime.