Monopoly Politics

In this deeply-researched book, Erik Peinert weaves together an analysis of material and ideational factors to develop a new theory about how governments learn over the long-term. The result is an important contribution both to our understanding of competition policy and to prevailing accounts of how public policies change over time. * Peter A. Hall, Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies, Harvard University * Tightly argued and deeply researched, Monopoly Politics offers a bold new answer to why states swing between regimes of market power and competition-not because of interests, ideas, or technology, but because every regime runs out of steam-in ways only outsiders can clearly see. * Beth Popp Berman, Richard H. Price Professor of Organizational Studies and Sociology, University of Michigan * In Monopoly Politics, Erik Peinert masterfully blends economic and political analysis, leveraging archival research on the U.S. and French cases to contends that markets require a balance between monopoly and competition, so enduring shifts in one direction eventually confront diminishing returns with lower growth, employment, and investment. Yet governments only reverse course over the long term, as bureaucrats committed to one paradigm are gradually replaced by new cohorts. * Steven K. Vogel, Il Han New Professor of Asian Studies and Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley *