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Abstract

This paper seeks to develop a comprehensive analytical framework for studying the politics
of economic growth by engaging with three literatures in comparative political economy: the
literature on producer-group coalitions, the literature on electoral politics and constrained partisanship
and, finally, the literature on the role of ideas. Drawing on Gramsci, we argue that
“social blocs” should be conceived as enduring constellations of sectoral and class interests
that are organized in hierarchical manner, with certain components of the social bloc being
privileged relative to others. We argue further that mainstream political parties compete with
each other based, in part, on claims to competence as managers of the social bloc and that
economic voting explains the political influence of economic sectors that are critical to the particular
growth models that different countries have adopted. Finally, we emphasize that social
blocs have an important ideological dimension. We illustrate these claims through stylized
case studies of the politics of economic growth in Germany and Sweden since the early 1990s.