This unique and original book offers a critical survey of the regulation approach, an influential theoretical school born in the 1970s and belonging to the neo-Marxist and radical political economy traditions. The author's persuasive argument is that regulation, in order to explain capitalist development, resorts to historicism and institutionalism and thereby adopts a 'middle-range' methodology. He contends that both its theoretical and methodological perspectives are currently unfit for this purpose.

This novel critique of regulation will prove a challenging and stimulating read for academics, researchers and graduate students with an interest in heterodox economics, the history of economic thought, political economy, regional development and labor process theory.