Capitalisms and Democracies: Can Growth and Equality Be Reconciled?

This book examines steadily-growing increases in inequality within Western capitalist democracies, examining with care the differences between these democracies rooted in their culture and institutions.

It highlights the differences in growth and inequalities between different countries, pointing to the role of endogenous institutions that affect social inequalities as well as the relationship between redistribution and economic growth. The book presents extensive comparative research on institutional factors such as industrial relations, welfare systems, training and innovation policies.

Paying attention to diverse types of democracies and to the main features of left-wing parties, the book highlights the importance of politics, and of different types of democracies, in shaping social inequalities and diverse development paths. It will appeal to students and scholars interested in economic and labour sociology, welfare studies, comparative political economy, comparative welfare, varieties of capitalism, and comparative politics.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution- Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Carlo Trigilia is Emeritus Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Florence and member of the Italian ’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei’. He served as Minister for Regional Development in the national Government in 2013-2014. He worked in various universities and was De Bosis professor at Harvard. His research interests and publications include local development (Social Capital and Local Economic Development, 2001; Local Production Systems in Europe, co-author, 2001; ChangingGovernance of Local Economies, co-author 2004); economic sociology and political economy (Economic Sociology. State, market, and Society in Modern Capitalism, 2002; Italy. Rise, decline and restructuring of a regionalised capitalism, co-author 2009; Politics against market. The hard way of Italian capitalism, co-author 2012; Is there a future for democratic capitalism, 2022).