Comparative capitalism, growth models and the state: An analysis of Hungary, Brazil and Turkey

This study examines the transformation of the state's role within the economy during the neoliberal era and how capitalist accumulation processes have been restructured through this shift. This analysis is conducted within the framework of the growth models approach, which offers a critical lineage to mainstream comparative capitalism studies. The primary objective of the study is to demonstrate that capitalism and its contemporary rationality, neoliberalism, derive from a common logic of accumulation and are shaped along the axes of converging national specificities. In this context, the first part of the study addresses the reflections of neoliberal rationality in the economic and political spheres through the reorganization of relations between the state, capital, and labor. The first chapter discusses the constitutive role of the state in capitalist production relations from a historical perspective, analyzing the new forms of interventionism emerging with neoliberalism and their relationship with the production of social consent. The second chapter of the study critically examines the 'varieties of capitalism' approach, which has become the mainstream reading of comparative capitalism literature. The limited conceptualization of the state's role, the assumption of static institutional structures, and the exclusion of developing countries weaken the explanatory power of the varieties of capitalism approach. In response to these limitations, the growth models approach, rooted in the Post-Keynesian economic tradition, provides an analytical framework open to change, focusing on periods of crisis, growth components, and forms of class compromise. The growth models approach conceptualizes different national models—such as domestic demand-led, debt-led private demand boom, weakly export-led, and export-led mercantilist —through aggregate demand components and sectoral financial balances, linking the political foundations of these models to the concept of 'growth coalitions.' Guided by this theoretical framework, the third part of the study examines the cases of Hungary, Brazil, and Turkey using historical and statistical methods. Although these three countries are located in different geographies and were integrated into capitalism in different historical periods, they were subjected to neoliberal reinstitutionalization processes within the framework of the Washington Consensus and the Post-Washington Consensus in the 1990s. To strengthen the narrative on political processes, indicators including economic growth, foreign direct investment stock, budget balance, unemployment rate, percentage change in exports and goods exports, current account balance, industrial production index, real wage index, external debt stock, inflation, interest rates, and exchange rates for each country covering the years 1990–2023 are presented according to the historical classification of the relevant periods. Furthermore, to elucidate the relationship between the political narrative and social consent, indicators regarding the share of education, health, and social protection expenditures in gross domestic product and the Gini index are examined. In order to identify the growth models, the contribution of growth components to annual growth was first disaggregated for each country, followed by an analysis of the sectoral financial balances of the private, public, and foreign sectors. Subsequent to this classification, the identified growth models were reinforced with economic indicators regarding industry and dependent financialization. In this process, sectoral value-added contributions, the sectoral distribution of goods exports and foreign direct investment, sectoral sub-components of foreign direct investment, the sectoral distribution of credits, the disaggregation of credits between non-financial corporations and households, the ratio of household debt to disposable personal income, and indicators of foreign direct investment, portfolio investments, and economic growth were presented for each country. Following the identification of the growth models and the growth coalitions supporting them, a discussion was conducted regarding the commonalities and divergences among the countries. The findings indicate that economic crises in all three countries resulted in a transformation of the growth model and the growth coalition. Social reactions to neoliberal policies brought political movements from the periphery of the system to power; however, these movements failed to develop an alternative class project directed at the neoliberal accumulation regime. Following the Great Recession, the support for industrial capital over financial capital and the emerging authoritarian tendencies in the three countries were evaluated as a form of the economic and political response of neoliberalism to crises. Consequently, the study analyzes the transformation of the state's position in the neoliberal era through the growth models approach, offering an original contribution to the comparative capitalism literature at both theoretical and empirical levels.