Innovation and new forms of economic governance
Innovation and new forms of economic governance

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to study the connection between technological progress on the one hand, and systems of economic governance, on the other hand. A simple model of economic governance is introduced, deriving the functional ca-pacity of social structures to carry out technological progress from their capacity to appropriate capital. That capacity is grounded both in efficiency and legitima-tion. That broad theoretical frame is applied to the coexistence of constitutional states and other forms of economic governance. Empirical evidence indicates that constitutional states are losing their capacity to appropriate capital. Additional, con-textual evidence suggests two other patterns of social change. On the one hand, de-mographic growth is slowing down. On the other hand, absorption of innovation in the global economy, back in the past strongly correlated with the fiscal intervention of governments, presently seems to have disconnected from the economic power of constitutional states.

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