ABSTRACT
The ambition of theories of regulation is to explain the trajectories of capitalist economies. The object of analysis is not the political economy of the international system, though, as I shall explain, these theories have had to address phenomena associated with processes of globalization, and, as a result, do intersect with the literature on global political economy. The aim of this chapter is to outline the main characteristics of regulation theory, to explain why historically it operated with a conception of the world economy as a mosaic of national social formations, and to outline the ways in which it has sought to explain the trajectories of capitalist societies since the crisis of the Fordist model and in particular how it seeks to analyse globalization. I agree that insufficient attention is paid to the nature and role of international institutions (Palan 1998a). I shall suggest, however, that the insistence on the centrality of national economies in the postwar 'golden age' and the addition of a concept of insertion of national social formations into an international order were largely warranted. I shall also argue that the more recent transition to a new global-finance dominated regime of growth raises anew the core questions that theories of regulation seek to answer concerning the speed and regularity of growth and social progress. This transition also requires, however, a fundamental re-assessment and revision of earlier ways of analysing the role of the international order and implies an internationalization of the mediation mechanisms that are essential if accumulation is to be reconciled with social progress.
