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Introduction
Typologies of capitalist diversity have advanced well beyond classification to a focus on identifying causal connections. Analysing welfare and production regimes together suggests that it is possible and useful to combine theories of capitalist diversity. Specifically, a combination of the typologies by varieties of capitalism (Hall, 2006, 2007; Hall and Soskice, 2001b; Soskice, 2007) and by Esping-Andersen's (1990, 1999) welfare typology appears to be theoretically promising. This claim will be supported by statistical evidence and an assessment of existing typologies (Amable, 2003; Boyer, 2004a, 2004b, 2004c), in which their different angles of analysis and their surprising degree of overlap in delineating 'families of nations' is highlighted. Not only is the argument made that we should integrate different typological approaches to get a full understanding of capitalist diversity in terms of arrangements for production and welfare distribution, but I also argue that the varieties of capitalism approach can benefit from explanations about the emergence of different welfare regimes and vice versa. In short, integrating insights from welfare typologies into the framework of varieties of capitalism suggests important questions concerning the shared common heritage of capitalist countries: a factor lately cited as key to understanding varieties of capitalism (Becker, 2007; Hancké et al., 2007). In turn, integrating insights from varieties of capitalism into welfare typologies can thus help us to understand the cultural framework in which welfare arrangements are operating. This is not to say that we should stop using typologies centred on isolated aspects of capitalism, such as welfare or production regimes.1 If singular aspects of capitalist countries are to be analysed for their own sake, and in an isolated way, then the typologies we already possess are sufficient. However, if we want to understand capitalist diversity from a macro-historical perspective, then it is fruitful to integrate typologies along the lines that will be proposed here.
I will first show in what way varieties of capitalism (VOC) and Esping-Andersen's welfare state research (WSR) differ in their epistemological approach. That the integration of VOC and WSR is empirically justified will be shown in the section that follows. The article then highlights the ways in which some of the most important typologies can be combined. In the last section, I discuss the benefit of such...