John L. Campbell
Appointments
Class of 1925 Professor Emeritus
Professor of Sociology Emeritus
Area of Expertise
Economic, political, and comparative sociology,
globalization,
comparative political economy,
institutional analysis
Biography
John Campbell's research interests span economic and political sociology, comparative political economy, and institutional theory. He has written about energy and tax policy, change in the U.S. economy, transformations of post-communist societies, the rise of neoliberalism, corporate social responsibility, globalization, the role of ideas and experts in policymaking, the 2008 financial crisis, and Donald Trump's rise to power and attack on the "deep state." The thread connecting all this is his interest in how institutions affect national political economies and how they change. Follow his blog at johnlcampbell.substack.com.
His latest book is Pay Up! Conservative Myths About Tax Cuts for the Rich (Cambridge University Press, 2025). Other recent books include Institutions Under Siege: Donald Trump's Attack on the Deep State (Cambridge University Press, 2023), What Capitalism Needs: Forgotten Lessons of Great Economists (Cambridge University Press, 2021), American Discontent: The Rise of Donald Trump and Decline of the Golden Age (Oxford University Press, 2018), and The Paradox of Vulnerability: States, Nationalism and the Financial Crisis (Princeton University Press, 2017).
Education
Ph.D. University of Wisconsin at Madison (1984)
M.A. Michigan State University (1977)
B.A. St. Lawrence University (1974)
Taught Courses
Publications
BOOKS:
Campbell, John L. 2025. Pay Up! Conservative Myths About Tax Cuts for the Rich. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Campbell, John L. 2023. Institutions Under Siege: Donald Trump's Attack on the Deep State. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Campbell, John L. and John A. Hall. 2021. What Capitalism Needs: Forgotten Lessons of Great Economists. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Campbell, John L. and John A. Hall. 2021. The World of States, 2nd edition. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Campbell, John L. 2018. American Discontent: The Rise of Donald Trump and Decline of the Golden Age. New York: Oxford University Press.
Campbell, John L. and John A. Hall. 2017. The Paradox of Vulnerability: States, Nationalism and the Financial Crisis. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Campbell, John L. and Ove K. Pedersen. 2014. The National Origins of Policy Ideas: Knowledge Regimes in the United States, France, Germany and Denmark. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Morgan, Glenn, John L. Campbell, Colin Crouch, Ove K. Pedersen, and Richard Whitley, editors. 2010. Oxford Handbook of Comparative Institutional Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.
Campbell, John L., John A. Hall, Ove K. Pedersen, editors. 2006. National Identity and the Varieties of Capitalism: The Danish Experience. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
Campbell, John L. 2004. Institutional Change and Globalization. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Campbell, John L. and Ove K. Pedersen, editors. 2001. The Rise of Neoliberalism and Institutional Analysis. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS:
Campbell, John L. 2024. "Neo-institutionalism and Political-Economic Performance." In Handbook on Comparative Political Economy, edited by Marino Regini. Cheltenham UK: Edward Elgar. (Forthcoming)
Campbell, John L. 2021. "Nationalism, Populism and Labor Market Reform Today." Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal 42(1)1-15.
Campbell, John L. 2020. "The Evolution of Fiscal and Monetary Policy." Pp. 787-811 in The New Handbook of Political Sociology, edited by Thomas Janoski, Cedric de Leon, Joya Misra and Isaac Martin. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Campbell, John L. 2019. "Is America Breaking Apart...Now?" Pp. 31-54 in States and Nations, Power and Civility: Hallsian Perspectives, edited by Francesco Duina. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Campbell, John L. 2019. "Self-Responsibility Gone Bad: Institutions and the 2008 Financial Crisis." American Behavioral Scientist 63(1)10-26.
Campbell, John L. 2018. "Corporate Social Responsibility and the Financial Crisis: Reflections on the 2017 AMR Decade Award." Academy of Management Review 43(4)546-556.
Campbell, John L. 2017. "Institutions, Policy Planning Networks and Who Rules America?" Pp. 86-101 in Studying the Power Elite: Fifty Years of Who Rules America? edited by G. William Domhoff. New York: Routledge.
Campbell, John L. and Ove K. Pedersen. 2015. "Policy Ideas, Knowledge Regimes and Comparative Political Economy." Socio-Economic Review 13(4)679-702.
Campbell, John L. and John A. Hall. 2015. "Small States, Nationalism and Institutional Capacities: An Explanation of the Difference in Response of Ireland and Denmark to the Financial Crisis." European Journal of Sociology 56(1)143-174.
Campbell, John L. and Ove K. Pedersen. 2015. "Making Sense of Economic Uncertainty: Knowledge Regimes in the United States and Denmark." Pp. 22-40 in Sources of National Institutional Competitiveness: Sense Making and Institutional Change, edited by Susana Borras and Leonard Seabrooke. New York: Oxford University Press.
Campbell, John L., Charles Quincy, Jordan Osserman and Ove K. Pedersen. 2013. "Coding In-Depth Semi-Structured Interviews: Problems of Unitization and Inter-Coder Reliability and Agreement." Sociological Methods and Research 42(3)294-320.
Patsiurko, Natalka, John L. Campbell and John A. Hall. 2013. "Nation-State Size, Ethnic Diversity and Economic Performance in the Advanced Capitalist Countries." New Political Economy 18(6)827-844.
Patsiurko, Natalka, John L. Campbell and John A. Hall. 2012. "Measuring Cultural Diversity: Ethnic, Linguistic and Religious Fractionalization in the OECD." Ethnic and Racial Studies 35(2)195-217.
Campbell, John L. 2011. "The U.S. Financial Crisis: Lessons for Theories of Institutional Complementarity." Socio-Economic Review 9:211-34.
Campbell, John L. and Ove K. Pederson. 2011. "Knowledge Regimes and Comparative Political Economy." Pp 167-90 in Ideas and Politics in Social Science Research, edited by Daniel Béland and Robert Cox. New York: Oxford University Press.
Campbell, John L. 2010. "Neoliberalism in Crisis: Regulatory Roots of the U.S. Financial Meltdown." Research in the Sociology of Organizations 30B:65-101.
Campbell, John L. 2010. "Institutional Reproduction and Change." Pp. 87-115 in Oxford Handbook of Comparative Institutional Analysis, edited by Glenn Morgan, John L. Campbell, Colin Crouch, Ove K. Pedersen, and Richard Whitley. New York: Oxford University Press.
Campbell, John L. and John A. Hall. 2010. "Defending the Gellnerian Premise: Denmark in Historical and Comparative Context." Nations and Nationalism 16(1)89-107.
Campbell, John L. 2010. "Neoliberalism's Penal and Debtor States: A Rejoinder to Löic Wacquant." Theoretical Criminology 14(1)59-73.
Campbell, John L. and John A. Hall. 2009. "National Identity and the Political Economy of Small States." Review of International Political Economy 16(4)547-572.
Campbell, John L. 2009. "What Do Sociologists Bring to International Political Economy?" Pp. 260-73 in Routledge Handbook of International Political Economy, edited by Mark Blyth. London: Routledge.
Campbell, John L. 2009. "A Renaissance for Fiscal Sociology?" Pp. 256-65 in The New Fiscal Sociology: Taxation in Comparative and Historical Perspective, edited by Issac Martin, Ajay Mehrotra and Monica Prasad. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Campbell, John L. and Ove K. Pedersen. 2007. "The Varieties of Capitalism and Hybrid Success: Denmark in the Global Economy." Comparative Political Studies 40(3)307-32.
Campbell, John L. 2007. "Why Would Corporations Behave in Socially Responsible Ways? An Institutional Theory of Corporate Social Responsibility." Academy of Management Review 32(3)946-67.
Campbell, John L. 2005. "Where Do We Stand? Common Mechanisms in Organizations and Social Movements Research." Pp. 41-68 in Social Movements and Organization Theory, edited by Gerald F. Davis, Doug McAdam, W. Richard Scott, and Mayer N. Zald. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Campbell, John L. 2005. "Fiscal Sociology in an Age of Globalization: Comparing Tax Regimes in Advanced Capitalist Countries." Pp. 391-418 in The Economic Sociology of Capitalism, edited by Victor Nee and Richard Swedberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Campbell, John L. 2003. "States, Politics and Globalization: Why Institutions Still Matter." Pp. 234-59 in The Nation-State in Question, edited by T.V. Paul, G. John Ikenberry and John A. Hall. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Campbell, John L. 2002. "Ideas, Politics and Public Policy." Annual Review of Sociology 28:21-38.
Works in Progress
Pay Up! Conservative Myths About Tax Cuts for the Rich
Since the late 1970s Republicans and other conservatives in the United States have called for lower taxes on the rich and large corporations. They insist that these taxes are too high, stifle the economy, facilitate wasteful government spendng, are unfair to everyone, and undermine freedom in America. These are all myths rooted in neoliberal theory. Based on historical evidence and data from the United States and other advanced capitalist democacies, this book debunks these myths and argues that high and progressive taxes can actually be good for the Unied States. It also explains why these myths refuse to die. Results appear in Pay Up! Conservative Myths About Tax Cuts for the Rich (Cambridge University Press, 2025).
Selected Works & Activities
Institutions Under Siege: Donald Trump's Attack on the Deep State
As president, except for the Civil War, Donald Trump's attack on America's political institutions was unprecedented in American history. He shredded electoral norms and created the "Big Lie" claiming that the 2020 election was stolen from him. He packed the federal courts with judges and justices he thought would do his bidding. He bullied the Department of Justice to serve his political interests. He tried to politicize the civil service. And by slashing taxes but not spending he added trillions of dollars to the government debt. Most social scientists study how institutions change incrementally. But Trump's attack was an attempt at radical change. It sheds new light on our understanding of how institutions change, the role that leadership and tipping points play in it, and what the implications are for the United States going forward. Results appear in Institutions Under Siege: Donald Trump's Attack on the Deep State (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
What Capitalism Needs: Forgotten Lessons of Great Economists
The stability of capitalism in the postwar era has been slowly destroyed and replaced by the increasingly fragile system of the twenty-first century. Mainstream economists have neglected key underlying social forces that are destabilizing capitalism today. These are the forces of classes, nations and states. This neglect stems, ironically, from contemporary economists overlooking important sociological and political lessons of some of their greatest predecessors, including Adam Smith, Friedrich List, Joseph Schumpeter, John Maynard Keynes, Karl Polanyi, and Albert Hirschman. The project explores these economists' arguments about caplitalist instability, how their insights help explan capitalism's instability today, and what this means for capitalism's prospects in the future. Results appear in What Capitalism Needs: Forgotten Lessons of Great Economists (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
The World of States, second edition
We live in a world of nation-states. We cannot understand this world without appreciating the institutional character of different types of states and the nature of the interactions among them. States are not disappearing due to globalization but they are changing as are their relationships with each other. This book is a revised and updated version of the first edition, published in 2015. A lot has happened in the world since then, including China's continued growth as an economic powerhouse, the election of Donald Trump, Brexit, trade wars, a resurgence in nationalism and populism in many countries and the corona virus pandemic. This second edition takes all of this into account to better understand the world of states. This new and updated analysis appears in The World of States (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
American Discontent: The Rise of Donald Trump and Decline of the Golden Age
How did someone with no political experience and who never ran for public office suddenly become President of the United States? This project answers that question. Donald Trump's rise to power was just the tip of a deep political-economic iceberg involving slowly developing trends since the 1970s in the economy, race relations, ideology and politics that reached a tipping point, and that was suddenly pushed over the edge by the 2008 financial crisis, Barack Obama's election as President, and his moves to manage the crisis and reform the health care system. The project also examines how this compares to populist resurgence in Europe, and how it will change the face of American politics and U.S. hegemony in the future. Results appear in American Discontent: The Rise of Donald Trump and Decline of the Golden Age (Oxford University Press, 2018).
Contact
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Institutions Under Siege: Donald Trump's Attack on the Deep State (Cambridge University Press, 2023)
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What Capitalism Needs: Forgotten Lessons of Great Economists (Cambridge University Press, 2021)
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The World of States, 2nd edition (Cambridge University Press, 2021)
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American Discontent: The Rise of Donald Trump and Decline of the Golden Age (Oxford Universisty Press, 2018)
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The Paradox of Vulnerabiity (Princeton University Press, 2017)
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The National Origins of Policy Ideas: Knowledge Regimes in the United States, France, Germany, and Denmark (Princeton University Press, 2014).
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The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Institutional Analysis (Oxford University Press, 2010)
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National Identity and the Varieties of Capitalism: The Danish Experience (McGill Universisty Press, 2006)
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Institutional Change and Globalization (Princeton University Press, 2004)
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The Rise of Neoliberalism and Institutional Analysis (Princeton University Press, 2001)
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Governance of the American Economy (Cambridge University Press, 1991)