Modern-day markets do not arise spontaneously or evolve naturally. Rather they are crafted by individuals, firms, and most of all, by governments. Thus "marketcraft" represents a core function of government comparable to statecraft and requires considerable artistry to govern markets effectively. Just as real-world statecraft can be masterful or muddled, so it is with marketcraft.
In Marketcraft, Steven Vogel builds his argument upon the recognition that all markets are crafted then systematically explores the implications for analysis and policy. In modern societies, there is no such thing as a free market. Markets are institutions, and contemporary markets are all heavily regulated. The "free market revolution" that began in the 1980s did not see a deregulation of markets, but rather a re-regulation. Vogel looks at a wide range of policy issues to support this concept, focusing in particular on the US and Japan. He examines how the US, the "freest" market economy, is actually among the most heavily regulated advanced economies, while Japan's effort to liberalize its economy counterintuitively expanded the government's role in practice.
Marketcraft demonstrates that market institutions need government to function, and in increasingly complex economies, governance itself must feature equally complex policy tools if it is to meet the task. In our era-and despite what anti-government ideologues contend-governmental officials, regardless of party affiliation, should be trained in marketcraft just as much as in statecraft.
Industry Reviews
"The book is a welcome addition to the literature arguing for a conceptual renovation of the analysis of market governance in two major ways: First and unlike other studies focusing on single countries (Eisner, 2014; Singer, 2015), Vogel develops a narrative based on two carefully selected case studies that allow him to demonstrate the validity of his argument more broadly. Second, he also provides concrete advice for scholars and policy makers on how to
incorporate this perspective into their research and practice." -- Jonathan Krautter, Contemporary Japan
"In an age of market fundamentalism, Steven Vogel provides a timely and powerful reminder that real markets require rules - and 'free markets' require the most. Tired rhetoric about government vs. the market doesn't just make little sense; it makes for terrible policy." -Jacob S. Hacker, Director, Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University, and co-author of American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What
Made America Prosper
"Steven Vogel's Marketcraft provides the language and the concepts we need to break out of the tiresome and unproductive debate over reliance on markets or government to manage the economy. He demonstrates definitively that states structure markets. He shows that our focus should be on how states do marketcraft and who benefits from particular policy choices." -Fred Block, Research Professor, University of California, Davis, and
co-author of The Power of Market Fundamentalism
"This is a profound and important book. The wonders of efficiency that we call markets are not self-created but constructed, and they need governments to thrive. At a time when globalization and information technology create novel market platforms that carry new promises, new dangers, and new fears, Steve Vogel's thoughtful pro-market argument has never been more relevant." -Nicolas Véron, Senior Fellow at both Bruegel and the Peterson
Institute for International Economics
"Building on decades of comparative research into advanced industrial societies, Vogel lays out in impressive detail the myriad ways in which governments, private sector institutions, social practices, and cultural norms construct and shape markets. It makes little sense to ask whether a market is free or regulated. The important questions are who governs a market, how, and for what ends." -James Kwak, Washington Monthly
"Vogel has written an extraordinarily important work that combines deep familiarity with his cases, theoretical nuance and innovation, and great rhetorical verve. Marketcraft offers important lessons, not only to scholars seeking to understand the dynamics of market economics but also to policymakers hoping to develop strategies for sustainable, equitable, and politically legitimate growth trajectories in advanced industrial democracies." -Mark I.
Vail, Perspectives on Politics
