State Capitalism - in European Studies

In European Studies

Several European scholars and political economists have been using the term increasingly to describe one of the three major varieties of capitalism that prevail in the modern context of the European Union. This approach is mainly influenced by Schmidt's (2002) article on The Futures of European Capitalism, in which he divides modern European capitalism in three groups: Market, Managed and State. Here, state capitalism refers to a system where high coordination between the state, large companies and labour unions ensures economic growth and development in a quasi-corporatist model. The author cites France and, to a lesser extent, Italy as the prime examples of modern European State capitalism. A general theory of Capitalist forms, whereby state capitalism is a particular case, was developed by Ernesto Screpanti, who argues that soviet type economies of the 20th century used state capitalism to sustain processes of primitive accumulation.