Regulation theories in retrospect and prospect

This paper presents a detailed methodological critique of the regulation research programme and its application to capitalist economies and the state. It defines four common methodological and substantive properties of the regulation approach and shows how different school or tendencies in regulation theory share these properties. It is this context that the foundations of the regulationist approach in realist ontology, epistemology, and theory construction are considered. Four schools are then considered in more detail: the parisian, grenoblois, West German, and radical American. Following this review the paper discusses some general methodological and theoretical problems posed by the regulation approach: the relation among different sites of regulation, the dialectic between structure and strategy, and the nature of the state. It concludes with some general comments on the future agenda of the regulation research programme.