ABSTRACT
This chapter elaborates dimensions that make for varieties of capitalism in rich democracies. The most important dimension discussed is the degree to which capitalism is negotiated. This is supplemented by discussion of the liberal AngloSaxon cultural heritage. Two aspects of social change are treated. First, the degree to which capitalism is negotiated, as the most basic dimension, is analyzed or have differences persisted in rich democracies in the era of economic globalization? I will conclude that differences between varieties of capitalism not only persist but that an even stronger polarization has emerged in the developedworld during recent decades. The second aspect of social change relates to the following: since different varieties of capitalismwith their distinct political styles respond to social change in different ways, I analyze how they have developed new societalmodels as the basis for a long economic boom. Political styles should favor, in the case of the AngloSaxon cultural pattern, or inhibit, in the case of pronounced negotiated capitalism, that transition. Nevertheless, both Anglo-Saxon countries and the continental European countries initiated a long economic boom in the 1990s. The interpretation advanced in this chapter is that, whatever the accomplishments of negotiated capitalism, negotiated systemswould not havemade the transition to a new societal model as quickly as they did if the new political configuration of the EU had not been brought into existence.
