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CO-EVOLUTION OF STATES AND MARKETS

Political Science 464

Professor John F. Padgett

University of Chicago
Spring 2019

Course description:

The course will examine important historical cases of institutional transformation and
transition in the development of western capitalism and democracy. Particular emphasis will
be devoted to processes of birth or invention of new organizational forms involved in such
institutional transitions. Contemporaneous developments in state and market will be
examined side by side, in order to uncover feedback processes between economic and
political developmental trajectories. Many lectures in the course are centered on chapters
from the co-authored book by John F. Padgett and Walter W. Powell, entitled The
Emergence of Organizations and Markets (Princeton U. Press, 2012). That book, in fact,
grew out of past versions of this course. Purchase is required, since this is, in effect, the
“textbook” for this course. I recommend you buy it at Seminary Coop bookstore.

Format of each class will be 1½ hour lecture and 1½ hour seminar discussion and
debate, with coffee break between the two. Lectures focus on the Padgett/Powell book;
seminar discussions focus on student memos about other readings on the syllabus. There are
multiple theoretical points of view in the syllabus’s reading materials, not a single
perspective or “truth”. In seminar, we will compare and contrast these perspectives, in order
to develop our intellectual capacity to analyze complicated processes of historical transition
from multiple points of view (even if privately we favor one particular perspective).

The course requirements for each student are (a) to read the required P/P chapter, or
equivalent, each week, and (b) to write four 5-7 page memos on other readings from the
syllabus.

Each week, on an every-other-week basis, approximately half of the students will

select one book from the attached reading list and write memos on that book. These memos
should be distributed electronically to all of the class the evening before the session at which
their chosen books will be discussed. There are three purposes to these book-review memos:
(1) to inform the class as a whole about readings not all students will have done; (2) to
develop students’ ability to do close but focused readings of famous texts; (3) to facilitate
active class discussion and debate, across multiple theoretical perspectives. In pursuit of the
last objective, students will be asked to give short 10 minute presentations to the class,
summarizing their memos and presenting the argument of the author to the class. [There may
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not be time for all students to present all of their memos orally, but I will try to equalize
presentation time as best I can, over the course of the term.]

The content of the memos should be structured according to the following format:
A. What is an empirical phenomenon discussed in the book of particular interest to
you? (In other words, it is not necessary or possible to summarize everything in the
book; instead just zero in on the empirical phenomenon of most interest to you.)
B. What is the structure of the argument the author uses to explain the chosen
phenomenon of interest?
C. What is your opinion about the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen authors’
approach?

Memos are due at 5pm on the day before class. They should be submitted
electronically in the appropriate week’s folder under the Discussion Board in Canvas.
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Week 1. Introduction: background readings (April 1)

Padgett materials:
John F. Padgett and Walter W. Powell, “The Problem of Emergence,” chapter 1 in
Padgett and Powell, The Emergence of Organizations and Markets. (required)
Padgett and Powell table of contents. (required)

Intro lecture 2007. (on canvas: not required)

John F. Padgett, Doowan Lee, and Nick Collier, “Economic Production as
Chemistry,” Industrial and Corporate Change 12 (August 2003): 843-878. (not
required)
John F. Padgett, Peter McMahan, and Xing Zhong, “Economic Production as
Chemistry II,” chapter 3 in Padgett and Powell. (not required)
John F. Padgett and Paul D. McLean. “Organizational Invention and Elite
Transformation: The Birth of Partnership Systems in Renaissance
Florence,” American Journal of Sociology 111 (March 2006): 1463-
1568. (not required)

State:
Charles Tilly, Coercion, Capital and European States
Hendrik Spruyt, The Sovereign State and its Enemies

Market:
Karl Polanyi, “The Economy as an Instituted Process,” in his Trade and Markets
in Early Empires, elaborated in chapters by Renfrew, Polanyi, and Dalton in
Ancient Civilization and Trade, edited by J.A. Sabloff and C.C. Lamberg-
Karlovsky.
Douglass North, Structure and Change in Economic History
Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of
Phillip II
Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World System I

[Given that Tilly through Wallerstein are all famous books, and given this is the first week of
the term, before memos are due, state and market readings on this page (only) can be
written about in any subsequent week. In all weeks other than this one, memos must
be written for the week that the book appears on the syllabus.]
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Week 2. Renaissance Florence: the birth of international banking and republicanism

(April 8)
Padgett materials:
John F. Padgett, “The Emergence of Corporate Merchant-Banks in Dugento
Tuscany,” chapter 5 in Padgett and Powell. (required)
John F. Padgett, “Transposition and Refunctionality: The Birth of Partnership
Systems in Renaissance Florence,” chapter 6 in Padgett and Powell. (required)

Lecture on Florence, 2005. (on Canvas: not required)

John F. Padgett and Christopher K. Ansell, “Robust Action and the Rise of the
Medici, 1400-1433,” American Journal of Sociology 98 (May 1993): 1259-
1319. (not required)
John F. Padgett, “Open Elite? Social Mobility, Marriage and Family in Florence,
1282-1494,” Renaissance Quarterly 63 (Summer 2010): 357-411. (not
required)
John F. Padgett and Paul D. McLean, “Economic Credit in Renaissance
Florence,” Journal of Modern History 83 (March 2011): 1-47. (not
required)

Market:
Robert Lopez, The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 950-1350
Iris Origo, The Merchant of Prato
Richard A. Goldthwaite, The Economy of Renaissance Florence
Raymond de Roover, The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 1397-1494
David Herlihy and Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Tuscans and their Families: A
Study of the Florentine Catasto of 1427
S.R. Epstein, Freedom and Growth

State:
John Najemy, Corporatism and Consensus in Florentine Electoral Politics, 1280-
1400
John Najemy, A History of Florence, 1200-1575
Gene A. Brucker, Florentine Politics and Society, 1343-1378
Hans Baron, The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and
Republican Liberty
Gene A. Brucker, The Civic World of Early Renaissance Florence
Anthony Molho, Florentine Public Finances in the Early Renaissance, 1400-1433
John F. Padgett and Christopher K. Ansell, “Robust Action and the Rise of the
Medici, 1400-1434,” American Journal of Sociology 98 (May 1993): 1259-
1319.
Nicolai Rubinstein, The Government of Florence under the Medici (1434 to 1494)
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Week 3. Empire: Ancient Rome and Spain (April 15)

Padgett materials:
Lecture on Empire: Ancient Rome and Spain/Hapsburgs, 2007. (on canvas: required)

Comparative:
Perry Anderson, Lineages of the Absolutist State
Barrington Moore, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant
in the Making of the Modern World
Richard Bonney, The European Dynastic States, 1494-1660
Brian Downing, The Military Revolution and Political Change
Thomas Ertman, Birth of the Leviathan
Karen Barkey, Bandits and Bureaucrats: The Ottoman Route to State Centralization
Karen Barkey, Empire of Difference: The Ottomans in Comparative Perspective

Ancient Rome:
Keith Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves.
E. Badian, Foreign Clientelae (264-70 B.C.).
Friedrich Münzer, Roman Aristocratic Parties and Families.
Lily Ross Taylor, Party Politics in the Age of Caesar.
Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution.
M.I. Findley, The Ancient Economy.
Fergus Millar, The Emperor in the Roman World (31 BC - 337 AD).

Spain:
A.W. Lovett, Early Hapsburg Spain, 1517-1598
J.H. Elliott, Imperial Spain, 1469-1716.
J.H. Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492-1830.
J.H. Parry, The Spanish Seaborne Empire
C.R. Boxer, The Portugese Seaborne Empire
Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Portugese Empire in Asia, 1500-1700

Russia:
Jerome Blum, Lord and Peasant in Russia
Richard Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime
Richard Hellie, Enserfment and Military Change in Muscovy.
Nancy Shields Kollman, Kinship and Politics: The Making of the Muscovy Political
System, 1345-1547.
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Week 4. Netherlands & England: the birth of agrarian capitalism, joint-stock

companies and the stock market (April 22)

Padgett materials:
John F. Padgett, “Country as Global Market: Netherlands, Calvinism and the Joint-
stock Company,” chapter 7 in Padgett and Powell. (required)

Lecture on England, 2005. (on canvas: not required)

Lecture on Netherlands, 2007. (on canvas: not required)

State:
Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477-1806
Julia Adams, The Familial State: Ruling Families and Merchant Capitalism in
Early Modern Europe
Philip Gorsky, The Disciplinary Revolution: Calvinism and the Rise of the State in
Early Modern Europe

Robert Brenner, Merchants and Revolution: Commercial Change, Political

Conflict and London’s Overseas Traders, 1550-1653
J.H. Plumb, The Growth of Political Stability in England, 1675-1725
Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III
P.J. Dickson, The Financial Revolution in England
John Brewer, The Sinews of Power: War, Money and the English State, 1688-1783

Market:
Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation
T.H. Aston and C.H.E. Philpin (eds.), The Brenner Debate: Agrarian Class Structure
and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe
Richard Lachmann, From Manor to Market
Richard Lachmann, Capitalists in Spite of Themselves
Albert Hirshman, Passions and Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism
before its Triumph
K.N. Chaudhuri, The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company,
1660-1760
Bruce Carruthers, City of Capital: Politics and Markets in the English Financial
Revolution
James Tracy, A Financial Revolution in the Hapsburg Netherlands
C.R. Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire
Jan de Vries and Ad van der Woulde, The First Modern Economy: Success, Failure,
and Perserverance of the Duth Economy, 1500-1815
Jonathan I. Israel, Dutch Primacy in World Trade, 1585-1740
James Tracy (ed.), The Political Economy of Merchant Empires: State Power and
World Trade, 1350-1750
Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World-System II: Mercantilism and the
Consolidation of the European World-Economy, 1600-1750
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Week 5. France (April 29)

Padgett materials:
Lecture on French Revolution, 2007. (on canvas: required)

State:
Georges Duby, The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined
J. Russell Major, From Renaissance Monarchy to Absolute Monarchy: French Kings,
Nobles and Estates
Victor Tapié, France in the Age of Louis XIII and Richelieu
G.R.R. Treasure, Cardinal Richelieu and the Development of Absolutism
James Collins, The State in Early Modern France
Roland Mousnier, The Institutions of France under the Absolute Monarchy, 1598-
1789
Charles Tilly (ed.), The Formation of National States in Western Europe, the two
chapters on France by Gabriel Ardant and by Wolfram Fischer and Peter
Lundgreen
Franklin Ford, Robe and Sword: The Regrouping of the French Aristocracy after
Louis XIV
William Beik, Absolutism and Society in Seventeenth-century France: State Power
and Provincial Aristocracy in Languedoc
Nannerl Keohane, Philosophy and the State in France: The Renaissance to the
Enlightenment

Theda Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions, Intro and Part I

Louis Bergeron, France under Napoleon
Bernard Silberman, Cages of Reason: The Rise of the Rational State in France, Japan,
the United States, and Great Britain

Market:
Charles Woolsey Cole. Colbert and a century of French Mercantilism.
Julian Dent, Crisis in Finance: Crown, Financiers and Society in Seventeenth Century
France
Philip Hoffman, Gilles Postel-Vinay and Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, Priceless Markets:
The Political Economy of Credit in Paris, 1660-1870

William Sewell, Work and Revolution in France: The Language of Labor from the
Old Regime to 1848
William Reddy, The Rise of Market Culture: The Textile Trade and French Society,
1750-1900
Christopher Ansell, Schism and Solidarity in Social Movements: The Politics of
Labor in the French Third Republic
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Week 6. Nineteenth-century Germany (May 6)

Padgett materials:
Jonathan Obert and John F. Padgett, “Conflict Displacement and Dual Inclusion in
the Construction of Germany,” chapter 8 in Padgett and Powell. (required)

Lecture on nineteenth-century Germany (Bismarck), 2007. (on canvas: not required)

Prussian state:
Geoffrey Barraclough, The Origins of Modern Germany
Felix Gilbert (ed.), The Historical Essays of Otto Hintze
Hans Rosenberg, Bureaucracy, Aristocracy and Autocracy: The Prussian Experience
1660-1815
Gordon Craig, The Politics of the Prussian Army

German state:
Otto Pflanze, Bismark and the Development of Germany
A.J.P. Taylor, Bismarck
Lothar Gall, Bismark the White Revolutionary
James J. Sheehan, German History, 1770-1866
Gordon A. Craig, Germany, 1866-1945
Fritz Stern, Gold and Iron: Bismark, Bleichroder, and the Building of the German
Empire
Daniel Ziblatt, Structuring the State: The Formation of Italy and Germany and the
Puzzle of Federalism
Margaret Anderson, Practicing Democracy: Elections and Political Culture in
Imperial Germany

Market:
Alexander Gerschenkron, Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective
Jurgen Kocka, chapters in The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Vol 7 and in
Alfred Chandler (ed.), Managerial Hierarchies
Harold James, Family Capitalism: Wendels, Haniels, Falcks, and the Continental
European Model
Richard Berniecki, The Fabrication of Labor, Germany and Britain, 1640-1914
Gary Herrigel, Industrial Constructions: The sources of German industrial power
George Steinmetz, Regulating the Social: The Welfare State and Local Politics in
Imperial Germany
Kathleen Thelen, How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in
Germany, Britain, the United States and Japan (but mainly Germany)
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Week 7. Nineteenth-century America (May 13)

Padgett materials:
U of C lecture on nineteenth-century America, 2007. (on canvas, required)
IMT lecture on America, 2005. (on canvas: required)

State:
David Greenstone, The Lincoln Persuasion: Remaking American Liberalism
Richard Bensel, Yankee Leviathan, The Origins of Central State Authority in
America, 1859-1877
Richard Bensel, The Political Economy of American Industrialization, 1877-1900
Stephen Skowronek, Building a New American State: The Expansion of National
Administrative Capacities, 1877-1920
Daniel Carpenter, The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy: Reputations, Networks
and Policy Innovation in Executive Agencies, 1862-1928
Elisabeth Clemens, The People’s Lobby: Organizational innovation and the rise
of Interest Group Politics in the United States, 1890-1925
Ellis Hawley, The New Deal and the Problem of Monopoly

Market:
Morton Horowitz, The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860
Martin Sklar, The Corporate Reconstruction of American Capitalism, 1890-1916
Alfred Chandler, The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American
Business
Alfred Chandler and H. Daems (eds.), Managerial Hierarchies: Comparative
Perspectives on the Rise of the Modern Industrial Enterprise
Neil Fligstein, The Transformation of Corporate Control
Charles Perrow, Organizing America: Wealth, Power, and the Origins of Corporate
Capitalism
William Roy, Socializing Capital: The Rise of the Large Industrial Corporation in
America
Frank Dobbin, Forging Industrial Policy: The United States, Britain and France in
the Railroad Age
Colleen Dunleavy, Politics and Industrializattion: Early Railroads in the United States
and Prussia
Gerald Berk, Alternate Tracks: The Constitution of the American Industrial
Order, 1865-1917
Thomas Hughes, Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-
1930

Sidney Pollard, The Genesis of Modern Management: A Study of the Industrial

Revolution in Great Britain
Reinhold Bendix, Work and Authority in Business
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Week 8. The Developmental State: Japan (May 20)

Padgett materials:
Lecture on Japanese Mejii Restoration, 2007. (on canvas: required)

State:
John W. Dower (ed.), Origins of the Modern Japanese State: Selected Writings of
E.H. Norman
W.G. Beasley, The Meiji Restoration
Chambers Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial
Policy, 1925-1975
Peter Evans, Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation
Steven Vogel, Japan Remodeled: How Government and Industry are Reforming
Japanese Capitalism

Market:
Rodney Clark, The Japanese Company
Ronald Dore, British factory-Japanese factory: The Origins of National Diversity
in Industrial Relations
Michael Gerlach, Alliance Capitalism: The Social Organization of Japanese
Business
Toshihiro Nishiguchi, Strategic Industrial Sourcing: The Japanese Advantage
Marco Orru, Niccole Biggart and Gary Hamilton, The Economic Organization of
East Asian Capitalism

Varieties of Capitalism:
Peter Hall and David Soskice (eds.), Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional
Foundations of Comparative Advantage
Bruno Amable, The Diversity of Modern Capitalism
Kozo Yamamura and Wolfgang Streeck (eds.), The End of Diversity? Prospects
for German and Japanese Capitalism
Gary Herrigel, Industrial Constructions: The sources of German industrial power
Kathleen Thelen, How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in
Germany, Britain, the United States and Japan (mostly Germany)
Richard Locke, Remaking the Italian Economy
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Week 9. Post-communist transitions: Russia and eastern Europe (May 27)

Padgett materials:
John F. Padgett, “The Politics of Communist Economic Reform: Soviet Union and
China,” chapter 9 in Padgett and Powell. (Soviet Union parts required)

Lecture on Russia, 2005. (on chalk: not required)

Lecture on Soviet Union, 2009. (on chalk: not required)
Andrew Spicer, “Deviations from Design: The Emergence of New Financial Markets
in Yeltsin’s Russia,” chapter 10 in Padgett and Powell. (not required)

State:
Merle Fainsod, Smolensk under Soviet Rule
Jerry Hough, The Soviet Prefects: The Local Party Organs in Industrial Decision-
Making
Janos Kornai, The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism
Mark Beissinger, Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State
Michael McFall, Russia’s Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from
Gorbachev to Putin
Lilia Shevtsova, Putin’s Russia
David Stark and Laszlo Bruszt, Postsocialist Pathways: Transforming Politics and
Property in East Central Europe
Gerald McDermott, Embedded Politics: Industrial Networks and Institutional
Change in Post-Communism
Akos Rona-Tas, The Great Surprise of the Small Transformation: The Demise of
Communism and the Rise of the Private Sector in Hungary
David Bartlett, The Political Economy of Dual Transformations: Market Reform and
Democratization in Hungary
Anna Seleny, The Political Economy of State-Society Relations in Hungary and
Poland
Market:
Joseph S. Berliner, Factory and Manager in the USSR
Alena Ledeneva, Russia’s Economy of Favors: Blat, Networking and Informal
Exchanges
Alena Ledeneva, How Russia Really Works: The Informal Practices that shaped
Post-Soviet Politics and Business
Juliet Johnson, A Fistful of Rubles: The Rise and Fall of Russian Banking
David Woodruff, Money Unmade: Barter and the Fate of Russian Capitalism
Stephen Handelman, Comrade Criminal: Russia’s new Mafiya
Vadim Volkov, Violent Entrepreneurs: The Use of Force in the Making of Russian
Capitalism
Alice Amsden, Jacek Kochanowicz and Lance Taylor, The Market meets its
Match: Restructuring the Economies of Eastern Europe
David Stark, “Recombinant Property in East European Capitalism,” American
Journal of Sociology 101:993-1027 (1996)
Gernot Grabher and David Start (eds.), Restructuring Networks in Postsocialism
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Week 10. East Asian economic development: China (June 3)

Padgett materials:
John F. Padgett, “The Politics of Communist Economic Reform: Soviet Union and
China,” chapter 9 in Padgett and Powell. (China sections required)

Lecture on post-Mao China, 2009. (on canvas: not required)

State:
Andrew Walder, Communist Neo-traditionalism
Roderick MacFarquhar (ed.), The Politics of China: The Eras of Mao and Deng
Susan Shirk, The Political Logic of Economic Reform in China
Barry Naughton, Growing out of the Plan: Chinese Economic Reform, 1978-1993
Dali Yang, Remaking the Chinese Leviathan: Market Transition and the Politics
of Governance in China

Market:
Jean Oi, State and Peasant in Contemporary China: The Political Economy of
Village Government
Andrew Walder, “Local Governments as Industrial Firms: An Organizational
Analysis of China’s Transitional Economy,” American Journal of Sociology
101: 263-301 (1995)
David Wank, Commodifying Communism: Business, Trust and Politics in a
Chinese City
Yi-min Lin, Between Politics and Markets: Firms, Competition and Institutional
Change in post-Mao China
Thomas Gold, Doug Guthrie, and David Wank (eds.), Social Connections in China:
Institutions, Culture, and the Changing Nature of Guanxi
Doug Guthrie, Dragon in a Three Piece Suit: The Emergence of Capitalism in China
Lisa Keister, Chinese Business Groups
Gary Hamilton (ed.), Cosmopolitan Capitalists: Hong Kong and the Chinese
Diaspora at the End of the Twentieth Century