3rd The Role of State in Varieties of Capitalism (SVOC)

30 November - 01 December 2017

New global challenges of European regulation, institutions and policies

Deadline for abstract submission: July 31, 2017

The SVOC2017 conference is organized by the Institute of World Economics of the Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Center for European Neighborhood Studies, Central European University.

On behalf of the Organising Committee, the Institute of World Economics of the Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Center for European Neighborhood Studies, Central European University we invite you to join us in beautiful Budapest, for the 3rd International Conference entitled THE ROLE OF STATE IN VARIETIES OF CAPITALISM.

Since its beginning the Conference has been trying to document the extent and reach of state regulation under the constraint of capitalism around the world and explore its political economic implications. The 2017 Conference aims particularly at exploring the "hegemonic transition" in Eurasian context and the "return of statist regulation".

The rationale behind the Conference is that recently both the multipolar world system and the international political economy as a social science face important challenges that might call for paradigmatic changes, maybe even emergence of new paradigms. Following the financial and economic crisis of 2008-9 a fundamental power shift in favor of new rising regional hegemons can be seen in a multipolar global system. In this context the challenges encountered by European Union as a whole and the member states in particular are tremendous.

Moreover, this shift seems to have its roots in the evolving new global era: heralding potential modifications in institutions, policies and patterns of the international division of labor and the multilateral coordination mechanisms in managing the inherent contradictions of global capitalism. Special emphasis will be given to the legal and social aspects of EU level regulation to shed light on the new constellation of elite fractions. This year's conference will focus on the consequences of hegemonic transition with respect to regulation in and around Europe.

The following issues are of particular importance in the understanding of the hegemonic transition in the Euroasian context:

• What is the future of the European integration under these circumstances?

• How to balance between multilateral and national regulation?

• Will Europe remain a strong international economic hub and power center balancing between the other two poles of the global triad? (hegemonic transition)

• What are the forms of the rising counter-hegemonic movements?

• How about the European relationship to Eastern partners? What is the future of the European Neighbourhood Policy? Will they be neglected and China targeted directly based on China's ambition to effectively capture European markets (one belt one road).

• How does the hegemonic shift in Europe affect the relationship among the northern, southern and Eastern member states?

• What are the prospects for new forms of integration in the Transatlantic and Eurasian region?

• What are the new developments of state aid law/policy? Control at the EU level and its effect on national industrial policy choices. Is there a chilling effect on European companies active on a global scale?

• Tax competition between EU Member States and the European Commission's proposed tax reforms on corporate taxation. Is there a regulatory competition between Member States

• Beyond inter-state relations what is the role of state in particular domestic contexts in managing the crisis-ridden accumulation dynamics and patterns (labour, capital, new social processes, migration, changing state-society relations, political mobilization)?

Our Conference welcomes high quality contributions proposing advances in the field of theory, empirics or policy. Contributions to SVOC2017 should be related to the general theme of the conference "The Role of State in Varieties of Capitalism" with the aim of

• understanding the new political economy of the European Union (ENP, state aid law, multilateralism, new protectionism)
• analysing the shift of the hegemonic transition of the world economy
• examining the potential future scenarios of the European Union (potential effects of Brexit, eurozone, institution reform)

Our keynote speakers were:

András Inotai - Professor at the College of Europe (Bruges and Natolin) and Research Professor at the Institute of World Economics of the Centre for Economic and Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Michael Landesmann - Senior Research Associate of wiiw and Professor of Economics at the Johannes Kepler University Linz