Delighted to announce that I will participate in the Conference on Political Capitalism this week. This conference is organized by Corvinus University of Budapest and University of Sorbonne Paris Nord (USPN).
Martin Paldam and I will present the following work:
Paldam, Martin and Saadaoui, Jamel, Oil countries: what kind of capitalism? (March 13, 2025). SSRN link: 5196860
Comments and remarks are welcome, as always.
The Topic of The Conference
The topic of our conference is “political capitalism”, a special variant of capitalism that has been highlighted first by Max Weber (1905, 1922). It refers to capitalism in distribution sphere before the advent of market capitalism in production sphere in the nineteenth century. Political capitalism describes profit-making or rent seeking through non-market channels. It was prevalent during the Roman and Chinese empires during wartime and in the Middle Ages, however, rent seeking through political channels is not limited to Antiquity or Middle Ages. It existed before the advent of market capitalism, but it also developed after the rise of modern capitalism. Different non-market channels include not only the state, political parties and groups, or political figures but also religious and military organizations. The influencers comprise
Aims
The conference aims to deepen our understanding on the diversity of capitalisms notably political capitalisms in contradistinction with market capitalisms, namely profit-making through competitive market channels. The conference welcomes scholars with different scientific stance in social sciences (economics, development studies, law, history, political science, sociology, psychology, anthropology, international relations studies, etc.). Scholars of two fields of multi-disciplinary studies are especially encouraged to participate i) comparative and institutional studies; ii) political economy of capitalisms.
The aim of the conference is to offer a state-of-art introduction of the research on political capitalism.
Some of Our Research Questions
-What are the relationships between political capitalism and market capitalism?
-What are the relationships between political capitalism and market and state failures?
-What is the place of rent-seeking and monopoly in promoting political capitalism?
-What are the differences between political capitalism in the past and present?
-How political capitalism can be characterized theoretically?
-What does explain the diversity pf political capitalism?
-What is the place of corruption in political capitalisms?
-Is there a specific accumulation regime for political capitalisms?
-What are comparative advantages and disadvantages of political capitalisms?
-What is the impact of political capitalism on economic performance and development?
-What are the efficiencies and inefficiencies of political capitalism?
-What is their impeding and enhancing role in promoting market capitalism?
-What is their impact on institutionalization of specific forms of political power, namely liberal democracy, autocracies, illiberal democracies, etc.?
-What is the relation between political capitalism and populism?
-What is the role of fundamental laws particularly constitutional laws in promoting capitalism?
-What is the relation between political capitalism and state predation?
-What is the relation between political capitalism and developmental state?
Keynote Speakers
Philippe Aghion – College de France, INSEAD, London School of Economics (on-line)
Pranab Bardhan – University of Berkeley
Vladimir Gel’man – University of Helsinki
Randall Holcombe – Florida State University (on-line)
Claude Menard – University Paris 1, Pantheon-Sorbonne
Branko Milanovic – City University of New York
Pascal Petit – University of Sorbonne Paris Nord (USPN)
Mehrdad Vahabi – University of Sorbonne Paris Nord (USPN)
Chenggang Xu – Stanford University
Abdallah Zouache – Sciences Po Lille