Die Finanzialisierungslücke der Varieties of Capitalism

Abstract

While the Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) approach is strong on pointing out the complementarities among national modes of accumulation, it falls short on capturing the dynamics of finance. From a regulationist perspective, its simple dichotomy of bank based versus market based finance overlooks functional equivalences and thus overemphasizes differences. The market based systems are misrepresented; in reality they do not conform to the ideals of transparency and dispersed shareholding. According to VoC, financialization emanates from the liberal market economies. However, the export successes of the coordinated market economies brought about financialization in the market systems by eliminating some of their industries. Most importantly, the VoC focus on firms treats finance as a service to companies
and not as a profit driven sector on its own.