Hall and Soskice (2001) distinguish between two basic types of capitalism, namely liberal market economies and coordinated market economies:
In liberal market economies, firms coordinate their activities primarily via hierarchies and competitive market arrangements. […] In coordinated market economies, firms depend more heavily on non-market relationships to coordinate their endeavors with other actors and to construct their core competencies. These non-market modes of coordination generally entail more extensive relational or incomplete contracting, network monitoring based on the exchange of private information inside networks, and more reliance on collaborative, as opposed to competitive, relationships to build the competencies of the firm. (Hall and Soskice 2001, 8)
Albert (1993) distinguished between the Anglo-American and the Rhine model of capitalism, which is a differentiation that corresponds to the one made by Hall and Soskice. Esping-Andersen (1990) worked out an early version of the varieties of capitalism approach that defines three political economies that he characterises as “three models of welfare capitalism” (Esping-Andersen 1990, 221): the liberal model, the social-democratic model, and the corporatist-statist model.
What Hall and Soskice define with their typology is a distinction between neoliberal capitalism and Keynesian capitalism. But there have also been other forms of capitalism, including right-wing authoritarian and fascist forms of capitalism (such as Nazi-Germany), state capitalism with a socialist ideology such as contemporary China, clientelist versions of capitalism, etc.
Critics stress Hall and Soskice’s neglect of statist forms of capitalism, the need of allowing for the conceptual existence of hybrid models, and the functionalist and dualist character of Hall and Soskice’s approach (Crouch 2005, chapters 1 and 2; Hancké, Rhodes and Thatcher 2007, 7–8; Schmidt 2002; Streeck 2010). Various authors have identified more than two models of capitalism. Schmidt (2002, chapter 3) defines three models of capitalism: market capitalism, coordinated capitalism, and state capitalism. Whitley (1999, chapter 2) defines six types of capitalism: fragmented capitalism, coordinated industrial district capitalism, compartmentalised capitalism, stateorganised capitalism, collaborative capitalism, highly coordinated capitalism. Amable (2003, chapter 3) speaks of five types of capitalism: market-based capitalism (the Anglo-Saxon model), social-democratic capitalism, Asian capitalism, Continental European capitalism, and South European capitalism. He characterises these models along five dimensions: competition, the wage-labour nexus, the financial sector, social protection, and education. The culture here only plays a role in the form of education, while aspects such as the media system and ideology are missing.
Chapter One | Introduction: What is Digital Capitalism?
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What is Capitalism?