Kathleen Thelen
Ford Professor of Political Science
Political economy; historical institutionalism; labor politics; social policy; advanced industrial countries.
Biography
Kathleen Thelen is Ford Professor of Political Science at MIT.
Her work focuses on the political economy of the rich democracies, with a current emphasis on the study of American capitalism in comparative perspective. She is the author, among others, of Attention Shoppers! American Retail Capitalism and the Origins of the Amazon Economy (Princeton University Press, 2025), Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity (2014) and How Institutions Evolve (2004), and co-editor of The American Political Economy: Politics, Markets, and Power (with Jacob Hacker, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, and Paul Pierson, 2022), Advances in Comparative Historical Analysis (with James Mahoney, 2015), and Beyond Continuity (with Wolfgang Streeck, 2005). Her awards include the Friedrich Schiedel-Award for Politics & Technology (2020), the Aaron Wildavsky Enduring Contribution Prize (2019); the Michael Endres Research Prize (2019), the Barrington Moore Book Prize (2015), the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award of the APSR (2005), the Mattei Dogan Award for Comparative Research (2006), and the Max Planck Research Award (2003). She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015 and to the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences in 2009. She was awarded honorary degrees at the Free University of Amsterdam (2013), the London School of Economics (2017), the European University Institute in Florence (2018), and the University of Copenhagen (2018).
Thelen has served as President of the American Political Science Association (APSA), Chair of the Council for European Studies, and as President of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics. Thelen is a permanent external member of the Max Planck Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung (Cologne, Germany).
Research
Thelen studies the origins, development, and effects of institutional arrangements that define distinctive "varieties of capitalism" across the rich democracies. Her work uses cross-national comparison and over-time analysis to identify the political-coalitional foundations on which different models of capitalism are founded, and to explain divergent trajectories of institutional development. Thelen’s most recent book, Varieties of Liberalization: The New Politics of Social Solidarity (Cambridge University Press 2014) examines trends in industrial relations, education and training, and labor market policy across five countries (Germany, Denmark, the United States, Sweden and the Netherlands). This book received the Barrington Moore Best Book Award of the ASA’s Section on Comparative and Historical Research. Her previous book, How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in Germany, Britain, the United States and Japan (Cambridge 2004), was selected as winner of the 2006 Mattei Dogan Award of the Society for Comparative Research and co-winner of the 2005 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award of the APSA. While her past research focused especially on the “coordinated market economies” of northern Europe, Thelen’s current work focuses on the study of the American political economy in comparative perspective.
Thelen is also a prominent contributor to the literature on institutions and institutional change. Her most recent work in this field is Advances in Comparative Historical Analysis (co-edited with James Mahoney, Cambridge 2015). Two previous volumes, Explaining Institutional Change (Cambridge 2010, with James Mahoney) and Beyond Continuity (Oxford 2005, with Wolfgang Streeck) critique dominant punctuated equilibrium models of change and provide an alternative historical-institutional framework for explaining modes of political change that are incremental but cumulatively transformative. This work was honored with the Aaron Wildavsky Enduring Contribution Award in 2019.
Recent Publications
Attention, Shoppers! American Retail Capitalism and the Origins of the Amazon Economy Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2025.
American Political Economy: Politics, Markets, and Power (co-edited with Jacob Hacker, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, and Paul Pierson). New York: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
“Off-Balance: How U.S. Courts Privilege Conservative Policy Outcomes” (co-authored with Brian Highsmith and Maya Sen), Perspectives on Politics, February 6, 2025
“Coordination Rights, Competition Law, and Varieties of Capitalism” (co-authored with Chase Foster), Comparative Political Studies 58: 6 (May 2025), 1199-1237.
“Arrangers and Orchestrators: The Diverging Role of the State in Danish and German Vocational Education and Training," (co-authored with Christian Lyhne Ibsen), Socio-Economic Review (online first April 15, 2024)
“Brandeis in Brussels? Bureaucratic Discretion, Social Learning, and the Development of Regulated Competition in the European Union,” (co-authored with Chase Foster), Regulation & Governance 18: 4 (October 2024), 1083-1103.
“The American Political Economy: Markets, Power, and the Meta Politics of US Economic Governance,” (co-authored with Jacob Hacker, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, and Paul Pierson) Annual Review of Political Science 25 (2022).
“Institutional Source of Business Power” (co-authored with Marius Busemeyer) World Politics 74: 3 (July 2020), 448-480.
“Employer Organization and the Law: American Exceptionalism in Comparative Perspective” Law & Contemporary Problems 83:2 (2020), 23-48.
“Varieties of Urbanism: A Comparative View of Inequality and the Dual Dimensions of Metropolitan Fragmentation” (co-authored with Yonah Freemark and Justin Steil) Politics & Society 48: 2 (June 2020), 235-274.
Teaching
| 17.154 | Varieties of Capitalism and Social Inequality |
| 17. 561 | European Politics |
| 17.150 | American Political Economy in Comparative Perspective |
| 17.951 | Institutionalism and Institutional Change |
| 17.198 | Contemporary Topics in Political Economy |
News
Biography
Kathleen Thelen is Ford Professor of Political Science at MIT.
Her work focuses on the political economy of the rich democracies, with a current emphasis on the study of American capitalism in comparative perspective. She is the author, among others, of Attention Shoppers! American Retail Capitalism and the Origins of the Amazon Economy (Princeton University Press, 2025), Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity (2014) and How Institutions Evolve (2004), and co-editor of The American Political Economy: Politics, Markets, and Power (with Jacob Hacker, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, and Paul Pierson, 2022), Advances in Comparative Historical Analysis (with James Mahoney, 2015), and Beyond Continuity (with Wolfgang Streeck, 2005). Her awards include the Friedrich Schiedel-Award for Politics & Technology (2020), the Aaron Wildavsky Enduring Contribution Prize (2019); the Michael Endres Research Prize (2019), the Barrington Moore Book Prize (2015), the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award of the APSR (2005), the Mattei Dogan Award for Comparative Research (2006), and the Max Planck Research Award (2003). She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015 and to the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences in 2009. She was awarded honorary degrees at the Free University of Amsterdam (2013), the London School of Economics (2017), the European University Institute in Florence (2018), and the University of Copenhagen (2018).
Thelen has served as President of the American Political Science Association (APSA), Chair of the Council for European Studies, and as President of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics. Thelen is a permanent external member of the Max Planck Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung (Cologne, Germany).
Research
Thelen studies the origins, development, and effects of institutional arrangements that define distinctive "varieties of capitalism" across the rich democracies. Her work uses cross-national comparison and over-time analysis to identify the political-coalitional foundations on which different models of capitalism are founded, and to explain divergent trajectories of institutional development. Thelen’s most recent book, Varieties of Liberalization: The New Politics of Social Solidarity (Cambridge University Press 2014) examines trends in industrial relations, education and training, and labor market policy across five countries (Germany, Denmark, the United States, Sweden and the Netherlands). This book received the Barrington Moore Best Book Award of the ASA’s Section on Comparative and Historical Research. Her previous book, How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in Germany, Britain, the United States and Japan (Cambridge 2004), was selected as winner of the 2006 Mattei Dogan Award of the Society for Comparative Research and co-winner of the 2005 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award of the APSA. While her past research focused especially on the “coordinated market economies” of northern Europe, Thelen’s current work focuses on the study of the American political economy in comparative perspective.
Thelen is also a prominent contributor to the literature on institutions and institutional change. Her most recent work in this field is Advances in Comparative Historical Analysis (co-edited with James Mahoney, Cambridge 2015). Two previous volumes, Explaining Institutional Change (Cambridge 2010, with James Mahoney) and Beyond Continuity (Oxford 2005, with Wolfgang Streeck) critique dominant punctuated equilibrium models of change and provide an alternative historical-institutional framework for explaining modes of political change that are incremental but cumulatively transformative. This work was honored with the Aaron Wildavsky Enduring Contribution Award in 2019.
Recent Publications
Attention, Shoppers! American Retail Capitalism and the Origins of the Amazon Economy Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2025.
American Political Economy: Politics, Markets, and Power (co-edited with Jacob Hacker, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, and Paul Pierson). New York: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
“Off-Balance: How U.S. Courts Privilege Conservative Policy Outcomes” (co-authored with Brian Highsmith and Maya Sen), Perspectives on Politics, February 6, 2025
“Coordination Rights, Competition Law, and Varieties of Capitalism” (co-authored with Chase Foster), Comparative Political Studies 58: 6 (May 2025), 1199-1237.
“Arrangers and Orchestrators: The Diverging Role of the State in Danish and German Vocational Education and Training," (co-authored with Christian Lyhne Ibsen), Socio-Economic Review (online first April 15, 2024)
“Brandeis in Brussels? Bureaucratic Discretion, Social Learning, and the Development of Regulated Competition in the European Union,” (co-authored with Chase Foster), Regulation & Governance 18: 4 (October 2024), 1083-1103.
“The American Political Economy: Markets, Power, and the Meta Politics of US Economic Governance,” (co-authored with Jacob Hacker, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, and Paul Pierson) Annual Review of Political Science 25 (2022).
“Institutional Source of Business Power” (co-authored with Marius Busemeyer) World Politics 74: 3 (July 2020), 448-480.
“Employer Organization and the Law: American Exceptionalism in Comparative Perspective” Law & Contemporary Problems 83:2 (2020), 23-48.
“Varieties of Urbanism: A Comparative View of Inequality and the Dual Dimensions of Metropolitan Fragmentation” (co-authored with Yonah Freemark and Justin Steil) Politics & Society 48: 2 (June 2020), 235-274.
Teaching
| 17.154 | Varieties of Capitalism and Social Inequality |
| 17. 561 | European Politics |
| 17.150 | American Political Economy in Comparative Perspective |
| 17.951 | Institutionalism and Institutional Change |
| 17.198 | Contemporary Topics in Political Economy |