Great Transformations : Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century

Rating:
Summary: Sweeping and provocative
Review: Mark Blyth's Great Transformations may or may not be the true heir to Polanyi's Great Transformation, but it certainly comes close. Blyth provides a clear, incisive criticism of the way most political economists treat the role of ideas in the formation of economic policy. The two case studies -- the United States and Sweden -- provide plausible evidence that Blyth is correct about the multifaceted role economic ideas play in mobilizing political actors, transforming the way the economy is regulated, and even influencing market behavior. These strengths ensure the book's importance to an academic audience.

But there is much here for the non-academic. Those interested in current debates about the role of the government in the economy will find many of Blyth's arguments deeply provocative. Blyth shows how the "common sense assumptions" that currently dominate arguments about tax and fiscal policy owe their success not to the truth of their propositions but to a series of contingent synergies between external events, such as the OPEC oil embargo, and political struggles in specific countries. Ultimately, Blyth's book is a powerful call to make political values, rather than facile claims about economic inevitability, the centerpiece of debates about the future of welfare and governmental regulation. Whether one agrees or disagrees with Blyth, his history of the development, adoption, and non-adoption of economic principles in the US and Sweden should not be ignored.