State-Capital Relations in Capitalist Variety Approaches: A Theoretical Comparison

Understanding the peculiarities of the accumulation process at the local, regional, or national levels is part of capitalist variety discussions. These debates rely on examining the diverse patterns of accumulation by focusing on different state interventions in economies, institutional restructuring, the particularities in class relations, and other factors among capitalist countries. This study evaluates comparative political economy approaches (VoC, post-VoC and variegated capitalism approaches) in theoretical terms by considering state-capital relations as an analytical point. In this respect, it aims to provide theoretical weaknesses of the Varieties of Capitalism Approach (VoC) and opportunities in the Variegated Capitalism Approach for understanding differentiation within capitalism. It argues that constraints of the VoC approach, which arises from its sole focus on state -market relations or institutional differentiations, can be overcome by including comparative analysis contradictions relating to state interventions, the relations of institutions with power relations, conflicts in the world market, and instability in the accumulation process, all of which are elaborated to the variegated capitalism approach in analysing state-capital relations.