Introduction

From its inception capitalism has been both an international system and a system based on individual nation-states. This presents a challenge for the social structure of accumulation approach, which has tended to emphasize the relation between institutions and accumulation in particular countries. To take account of the international dimension of capitalism, the social structure of accumulation of a given country should be seen as composed of the particular domestic institutions which condition capital accumulation, which may differ from the accumulation-promoting institutions of other countries, together with the international institutions that bear upon accumulation. The latter are, of course, common to all countries in a given period.

Each of the three periods of rapid capitalist expansion identified in the social structure of accumulation literature – 1840S–70S, 1890s–World War I (or 1929), and 1940S–60S (or 1973) – has been associated with a particular set of international institutions that promoted accumulation. Each such set of international institutions has supported domestic components of various national social structures of accumulation in the major capitalist countries. The international part of a social structure of accumulation promotes accumulation by contributing to stability and predictability in key international economic and political relations. By so doing, the international institutions of a social structure of accumulation help solve the problems of obtaining inputs at stable, predictable, and reasonably low prices; of making the operation of the production process predictable and effective; and of assuring predictable and profitable markets for products.