Despite of certain deregulations in the western economies starting with the 70s, the general tendency is not towards the classical liberal model, the sate still playing an important role as a supplier of services. A significant number of West Europe traditional social-democracies have turned into assisted deregulated states, the paradigmatic example being Sweden. An alternative capitalism model, which was named ”regulatory capitalism”, is seen in states as the United States of America, or Japan, where the state plays a more mminor role as a supplier of services, but the economy is more and more regulated. Also, the old opposition from the Cold War, between communism and capitalism has dissapeared today, the most important communist sttes, as Rusia and China, going towards what once was called „state capitalism”, a system in which the state tries to lead to market process (both in regulations and state owned companies or companies privileged by the state) through the preferred political outcomes. The long-term direction through which the global capitalist system is heading to seems to be dependent of the power ratio between three main forces: th general public, big corporate companies and the state. The transparent democracies tend to gravitate towards a deregulated from of capitalism (that varies from the Swiss neo-liberalism to Sweden type of assisted states); the countries in which the corporations have a big influence on the politicians and succeed in capturing the political process tend to a regulatory-capitalism form; and the countries in which the state has no real competitor tend to a state capitalism form. Aside from these individual states powers ratio result, the future of capitalism at a global level depends on the way in which different types of capitalism interact and the way in which the distortions introduced in a part of the system will spread to other states.

Special guests:

Dragos Paul Aligica

Vlad Tarko

Texts:

Paul Dragos Aligica & Vlad Tarko, „Regulatory Capitalism: Overview of the Concept, Implications of the Phenomenon”, prezentat la conferinta APEE 2012 in Las Vegas;

Paul Dragos Aligica & Vlad Tarko, „State Capitalism, Mercantilism and the Rent-Seeking Conjecture”, prezentat la conferinta APEE 2012 in Las Vegas.