The Evolution of Modern States: Sweden, Japan, and the United States

This book was awarded The 2011 Gunnar Myrdal Prize. The Gunnar Myrdal Prize is awarded annually for the best monograph on a theme broadly in accord with the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE) theoretical perspectives. EAEPE originated in 1988 and its main purpose is to promote evolutionary, dynamic and realistic approaches to economic theory and policy. EAEPE is now the foremost European association for heterodox economists and is the second-largest association for economists in Europe.The Evolution of Modern States is a significant contribution to the literatures on political economy, globalization, historical institutionalism, and social science methodology. The book begins with a simple question: why do rich capitalist democracies respond so differently to the common pressures they face in the early twenty-first century? Drawing on insights from evolutionary theory, Sven Steinmo challenges the common equilibrium view of politics and economics and argues that modern political economies are best understood as complex adaptive systems. The book examines the political, social, and economic history of three different nations - Sweden, Japan, and the United States - and explains how and why these countries have evolved along such different trajectories over the past century. Bringing together social and economic history, institutionalism, and evolutionary theory, Steinmo thus provides a comprehensive explanation for differing responses to globalization as well as a new way of analyzing institutional and social chang