Theoretical Foundations of Historical Political Economy

Historical political economy extends comparative and international political economy with a view to overarching processes and dynamics in specific historical phases. Against this background, Chapter 12 presents selected theoretical approaches and outlines the foundations of intertemporal comparative political economy. The most important intertemporal analytical perspectives here include Marxist (Mandel) and non-Marxist (Kondratieff, Schumpeter) theories of economic cycles, the different variants of regulation theory, conceptions of political-economic and global political hegemony cycles, neo-Gramscian periodizations of capitalism and the perspective of social structures of accumulation. These theories share a perspective on capitalist periodization and cycles, while emphasizing specific interdependencies. Finally, drawing on Polanyi’s concept of the double movement, the chapter presents an integrative heuristic of intertemporal political economy.