ABSTRACT
While there does not exist a generally accepted definition of the term, this entry takes “political economy” to refer to institutional matrices that structure the organizational relationships among economic actors in production and distribution, which are supported by domestic and international policy regimes. There is a growing consensus in the political economy literature that, first, these institutional matrices are generally taken to be nationally specific while showing similarities across diverse varieties within capitalism, broadly defined, and second, the quality (and complementarity) of these institutions determines the relative economic performance of domestic political economies (Hall and Soskice, 2001). The performance of such matrices is judged by the extent to which “they generate relatively high rates of economic growth and employment, while resolving distributive issues with a minimum of social conflict” (Hall, 2010: 3).
