Global capital accumulation and national varieties of capitalism: The political economy of Argentina and Australia in comparative perspective

Abstract

This article offers a comparative analysis of the institutional settings and political dynamics in Australia and Argentina. This analysis is based on an understanding of nation-state political processes as forms of realisation of global-scale capital accumulation. After identifying a common specificity in their capitalist development based on the production of primary commodities under favourable natural conditions and the appropriation of ground-rent by competing social subjects, as well as the natural and historical conditions leading to differentiation, the article traces the common and distinctive political and institutional forms of realisation of the process of capital accumulation in both societies. The comparative analysis of the experiences of Argentina and Australia offered in this article provides a solid critique of mainstream types of institutional political economy.