Political Economy and the Social Organisation of Economic Activity: A Synthesis of Neo-Institutional and Labour Process Analyses

Abstract

This article accepts that neo-institutionalist analysis is an important development in providing a framework for understanding the social organisation of economic activity within firms. However, it is argued that neo-institutionalism ignores political economy and an important institution – the market – within capitalist political economy such that the framework of analysis so far offered is inadequate. It is suggested that an understanding of that organisation would benefit from an incorporation of labour process analysis as the latter is explicit in arguing that the social organisation of economic activity cannot be decoupled from political economy and, hence with regard to capitalism, the effects of the market. For the sake of simplicity, the introduction maps out the general argument and subsequent sections of the article offer outlines and then evaluations of both forms of analysis separately before prosecuting a synthesis of the two.