During the nineteenth century, very different templates for organizing the economy emerged in Europe and North America. Perhaps the single most important difference across countries concerned the roles of public and private action. Is the state a legitimate and rational participant in decisions...

Neo-liberalism has two components. One is historical, and it revolves around the idea that advanced economies - particularly those of Britain and the US - developed under conditions that are best characterized as laissez-faire. The other is definitional, and it revolves around the idea that one...