Marketcraft

The book is a welcome addition to the literature arguing for a conceptual renovation of the analysis of market governance in two major ways: First and unlike other studies focusing on single countries (Eisner, 2014; Singer, 2015), Vogel develops a narrative based on two carefully selected case studies that allow him to demonstrate the validity of his argument more broadly. Second, he also provides concrete advice for scholars and policy makers on how to incorporate this perspective into their research and practice. -- Jonathan Krautter, Contemporary Japan In an age of market fundamentalism, Steven Vogel provides a timely and powerful reminder that real markets require rules - and 'free markets' require the most. Tired rhetoric about government vs. the market doesn't just make little sense; it makes for terrible policy. -Jacob S. Hacker, Director, Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University, and co-author of American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper Steven Vogel's Marketcraft provides the language and the concepts we need to break out of the tiresome and unproductive debate over reliance on markets or government to manage the economy. He demonstrates definitively that states structure markets. He shows that our focus should be on how states do marketcraft and who benefits from particular policy choices. -Fred Block, Research Professor, University of California, Davis, and co-author of The Power of Market Fundamentalism This is a profound and important book. The wonders of efficiency that we call markets are not self-created but constructed, and they need governments to thrive. At a time when globalization and information technology create novel market platforms that carry new promises, new dangers, and new fears, Steve Vogel's thoughtful pro-market argument has never been more relevant. -Nicolas Veron, Senior Fellow at both Bruegel and the Peterson Institute for International Economics Building on decades of comparative research into advanced industrial societies, Vogel lays out in impressive detail the myriad ways in which governments, private sector institutions, social practices, and cultural norms construct and shape markets. It makes little sense to ask whether a market is free or regulated. The important questions are who governs a market, how, and for what ends. -James Kwak, Washington Monthly Vogel has written an extraordinarily important work that combines deep familiarity with his cases, theoretical nuance and innovation, and great rhetorical verve. Marketcraft offers important lessons, not only to scholars seeking to understand the dynamics of market economics but also to policymakers hoping to develop strategies for sustainable, equitable, and politically legitimate growth trajectories in advanced industrial democracies. -Mark I. Vail, Perspectives on Politics