National Growth Models and Global Capitalism: a Critique of Comparative Political Economy

This theoretical article offers a critical perspective on the stagnationist and methodologically nationalist foundations of the growth model approach in comparative political economy. Going back to Bhaduri and Marglin’s foundational work, we examine its stagnationist roots, focusing on the causal mechanisms that link national aggregate demand, profit, and investment, which create a congruence between capitalist accumulation and national economic growth. We contrast these stagnationist assumptions with recent research on the transnational accumulation strategies of firms, which escape the stagnationist logic. Subsequently, we show how the growth model approach, more implicitly than explicitly, adopts many of the stagnationist assumptions of the Neo-Kaleckian model in its creation of a typology based on national aggregate demand components, thereby also subscribing to a methodological nationalism that inadequately captures contemporary global accumulation dynamics. Consequently, we argue that comparative political economy studies need to emphasize the theorization of the changing logic of capitalist accumulation.