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 politicaldynamics in Australia and Argentina. This analysis is based on an understandingof nation-state political processes as forms of realisation of global-scale capitalaccumulation. After identifying a common specificity in their capitalist developmentbased on the production of primary commodities under favourable naturalconditions and the appropriation of ground-rent by competing social subjects, aswell as the natural and historical conditions leading to differentiation, the articletraces the common and distinctive political and institutional forms of realisation ofthe process of capital accumulation in both societies. The comparative analysis ofthe experiences of Argentina and Australia offered in this article provides a solidcritique of mainstream types of institutional political economy.