They also use country studies to reinforce their approach, including the role of the state in the Asian Crisis, the current debate on state reform in Japan, public administration in Central and Eastern Europe and the practice of state reform in Brazil.

Contents: Introduction Part I: Theoretical Perspectives on the Role of the State, Institutions and Conventions 1. An Institutional Perspective on the Role of the State: Towards an Institutionalist Political Economy 2. Evolutionary Economics and the Economic Role of the State 3. Disorderly Coordination: The Limited Capacities of States and Markets 4. Conventions and Institutions: Rethinking Problems of State Reform, Governance and Policy 5. From Micro to Macro: The Concept of Emergence and the Role of Institutions Part II: Policy Perspectives 6. National Diversity and Global Capitalism 7. Gestalt Shift: From ‘Miracle’ to ‘Cronyism’ in the Asian Crisis 8. State Reform in the 1990s: Logic and Control Mechanisms 9. Blockage versus Continuance in Brazilian Industrialization 10. Central Banking, Democratic Governance and Political Authority: The Case of Brazil in a Comparative Perspective 11. Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe: Considerations from the ‘State Science’ Approach Index