Should Japan and Germany strive to restructure their institutional fabric and arrangements to make them more similar to Anglo-American standards? Where will systemic change lead? This book offers fresh insights by collecting Japanese and German contributions to this scholarly discussion both from theoretical and empirical viewpoints. A major conclusion of several papers is that the forces of differentiation are frequently underestimated. Important thematic issues include: contingency, path dependence and complementarity. Examinations of economic globalisation and rapidity of technological change pose questions about the nature of socio-economic system analysis in the future.

Should Japan and Germany strive to restructure their institutional fabric and arrangements to make them more similar to Anglo-American standards? Where will systemic change lead? This book offers fresh insights by collecting Japanese and German contributions to this scholarly discussion both from theoretical and empirical viewpoints. A major conclusion of several papers is that the forces of differentiation are frequently underestimated. Important thematic issues include: contingency, path dependence and complementarity. Examinations of economic globalisation and rapidity of technological change pose questions about the nature of socio-economic system analysis in the future.