There is more to national economies than the national economy: extending the Growth Model research programme in comparative political economy

Abstract This article argues that the Growth Model (GM) research programme in comparative political economy has an ontological and methodological bias towards the national level that generates an implicit functionalist-reductionism. This is a problem because GM research is explicitly designed to be a theory that eschews the functionalist-equilibrium New Keynesian assumptions of Varieties of Capitalism theory. To overcome this problem, we make the case that focusing on the city-regional level within a global-systems level analysis allows for a better integration of comparative political economy with international political economy in GM research. In particular, we argue that focusing on where income growth is produced and concentrated within advanced capitalism (cities-regions) allows us to better explain the political consequences of unequal growth from a post-Keynesian GM-perspective.