The Growth Paths of State-Society Relations: Power Dynamics, Industrial Policy, and the Pursuit of Inclusive and Sustainable Growth

Institutions shape states, society, businesses, and the interactions between them. Understanding how these interactions shape the growth paths of different countries is crucial to monitoring policy outcomes and gauging creditable impact. The Growth Paths of State-Society Relations highlights how different state-society relations have developed, the power relationships that characterize their different forms or modes, and the wider growth paths that are likely to emerge as a result.

Combining case studies with empirical and theoretical game analysis, Mohamed Ismail Sabry presents four State-Business-Labor Relations (SBLR) modes for considering the power relationships at play in these interactions. Analyzing four significant case studies featuring Germany, the USA, China, and Russia, Sabry investigates the emergence of these various modes, particularly whether they arise out of institutional settings or special socioeconomic or historical circumstances. Considering variables such as levels of productivity, long-run economic growth, inequality, and sustainability, chapters also discuss how the SBLR modes affect the growth paths of each example country, particularly through policies related to Technology and Industry 4.0, Green transformation, and social welfare.

Providing a rationale for institutional change as well as suggestions for power restructuring within a state-society relationship, The Growth Paths of State-Society Relations offers a unique and nuanced analysis of the perpetual interplay between government, business, and society.

Mohamed Ismail Sabry is Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher Fellow at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and a former Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Merian Center for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM)- Research Group “Resources and Sustainability”, Tunisia, and the Bremen University of Applied Sciences (HSB), Germany. His academic fields of interest include institutional economics, political economy, socioeconomics, and development.