In Search of American Political Economy: A Framework and Agenda for Research

• In Event: The American Political Economy in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The contributors to this volume work within the emerging field of American Political Economy (APE). In particular, they seek to understand how the interaction of markets and governments conditions both the dynamics and outcomes of the increasingly knowledge-oriented and economically and politically polarized APE. This research agenda holds extraordinary promise, both for understanding the dramatic transformation of American politics and the economy over recent decades and for reorienting political science in productive directions. Yet there is currently a very large gap between what we know and what we need to know. This introduction briefly explores the reasons why this vital field of inquiry has languished, suggests a framework for intellectual progress, introduces some of the themes that animate the project, and highlights some of the key contributions of the essays that follow.

Authors

• Jacob S. Hacker, Yale University

• Kathleen Thelen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Alexander Warren Hertel-Fernandez, Columbia University

• Paul Pierson, University of California, Berkeley