THE NEGOTIATED ECONOMY - IS THERE A THEORY

The original concept of the negotiated economy from the late 1970s pro vided some heuristic insights into significant developments of politic al, economic, and administrative processes. The later development of t he concept has not brought the theory of the negotiated economy any fu rther. This is a reply to an article published in SPS (Andersen et al. 1996) which responded to criticisms brought by me in an earlier artic le (1994:4). The defence of the theory of the negotiated economy is no t consistent. The theory is both non-positive and positive, and normal ly accepted criteria for empirical confrontation are not adhered to.