Democracy and Prosperity

A groundbreaking historical analysis of how global capitalism and advanced democracies mutually support each other

It is a widespread view that democracy and the advanced nation-state are in crisis, weakened by globalization and undermined by global capitalism. Torben Iversen and David Soskice argue that this view is wrong. In fact, advanced democracies are resilient and their enduring relationship with capitalism has been mutually beneficial. Iversen and Soskice show how democratic states continuously reinvent their economies through public investment in research and education, by imposing competitive product markets and cooperation in the workplace, and by securing macroeconomic discipline as the preconditions for innovation and the promotion of advanced sectors of the economy. Challenging the prevailing wisdom on globalization, Democracy and Prosperity reveals how advanced capitalism is neither footloose nor unconstrained—and how it thrives under democracy precisely because it cannot subvert it.