This book argues that there is no single best institutional arrangement for organizing modern societies. Therefore, the market should not be considered the "ideal and universal" arrangement for coordinating economic activity. Instead, the editors argue, the economic institutions of capitalism exhibit a large variety of objectives and tools that complement each other and cannot work in isolation. The various chapters of the book explore challenging issues in the analysis of differing institutional arrangements for coordinating economic activity, asking what logics and functions they follow and why they emerge, mature and persist in the forms they do. They conclude that any institutional arrangement has its strengths and weaknesses and that such institutions evolve according to a logic specific to each society. They also note that institutions continuously respond to changing circumstances, and are not static entities.

"This is a stimulating set of essays produced by a distinguished set of contributors." Michael Smith, Canadian Journal of Political Sciences

"This is a stimulating set of essays produced by a distinguished set of contributors." Michael Smith, Canadian Journal of Political Sciences

"This valuable and rich collection of essays challenges the assumption of the self-adjusting market on three major grounds: first, by arguing that economic activity is coordinated bye several different institutional mechanisms and that a variety of capitalist models exist, as opposed to the idea of a single one; second, by stressing Karl Polanyi's notion of the embededness of economic institutions...third, by showing that specific forms of economic coordination are more likely to be used at some level of society...than at others." American Jrnl of Sociology

"This volume brings together a range of important and influential contributions from various disciplines in which this new institutional analysis has been applied." Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal