What Happened to the State-Influenced Market Economies (SMEs)? France, Italy, and Spain Confront the Crisis as the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Abstract

Abstract The economic crisis that began in 2008 had a differential impact on France, which had a pretty good crisis; Italy, which had a pretty bad one; and Spain, for which the crisis was downright ugly. All three can be categorized as part of a third variety of capitalism, as state-influenced market economies (SMEs) in which the state’s role is central as the main driver of capitalism, as a state of mind as much as the state in action, by contrast with market-driven liberal market economies and network-based coordinated market economies (LMEs and CMEs). But to understand these countries’ trajectories over time as well as their responses to the economic crisis, the chapter supplements the consideration of the political economic institutions with an examination of the differences in these countries’ policies, political institutions, and politics — encompassing not just the role party-based coalitions and interest-based bargains but also the role of leadership, ideas, and discourse—along with the role of the EU.

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