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The New Institutional Political Economy of Capitalism
The New Institutional Political Economy of Capitalism

The New Institutional Political Economy of Capitalism

In recent decades, capitalists have largely succeeded in undermining the state’s capacity to act, leaving it too weak to carry out social democratic reforms even with a favorable government in place. Transformative change must therefore begin with a reset of private law, as it is this body of law that empowers holders of capital to build their wealth and wield power over others.

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The Neoliberal Grid is in Crisis

To protect customers from rising electricity prices, public officials are urging data center developers to supply their own power. But this approach risks privatizing the power grid, worsening the climate crisis, and eroding electricity’s status as a public good.

Politics, Culture, and Capitalism

How much autonomy does politics have from the prevailing economic order? And what role does culture play in shaping politics? Answers to these questions will help determine law’s potential role in advancing democratic efforts to shape the terms of common life.

A Social Theory of Law in Capitalism

Understanding law’s role in producing the imperatives of capitalism and the relative power of those who occupy different roles in production allows us to identify reforms capable of transforming the structure of those relations.

American Kafala

When seen through the prism of the kafala system, it appears that the Trump administration seeks to consolidate and formalize the most extractive features of the U.S. migration regime.

Recent

The Time for Public Pharma is Now

To make medicines more affordable, policymakers are increasingly turning to price controls and out-of-pocket caps. These measures, while lowering costs, leave decisions about which drugs to manufacture and distribute in private hands. If patients are to have reliable access to the medicines they need, the government must take on a more direct role in. . .

Weekly Roundup: Sept. 25

Jed Purdy discusses law’s role in capitalism, while Megan Wachspress explores how the data center boom risks privatizing the power grid. Plus, Beatrice Adler-Bolton and Gabe Winant on gerontocracy, Lev Menand and Lina Khan on jurisdiction stripping, Ron Knox on forgotten lessons about monopolies and fascism, Jed Purdy on Raymond Williams, Noura Erakat on. . .

Weekly Roundup: Sept. 18

Yochai Benkler on the dynamics of capitalism and law’s role within it, Matthew Dimick on capital and law as social forms, and Matthew Lawrence on administrative law after transsubstantivity. Plus, new books by Nikolas Bowie, Daphna Renan, and Allison Tait, a symposium on the global political economy of artificial intelligence, an upcoming event on. . .

Doing Applied Administrative Law

Administrative law is often described as “transsubstantive”: in understanding, evaluating, and articulating the rules governing federal agency action across public health, environmental regulation, national security, and sundry other domains, law schools and legal scholarship treat administration as a single enterprise. What would it take to move beyond. . .

Weekly Roundup: Sept. 11

Sameer Ashar on the potential transformation of the U.S. immigration system, Luke Herrine on the history of multilevel marketing and right-wing movement building, and a CFP for the second annual ALPE conference. Plus, a collaborative research project for law students interested in the transition from capitalism to socialism, a new book by Sabeel Rahman, two. . .