To have or to be: on the problem of the interaction between State and economy and its ‘solidarist’ mode of regulation1:
In an attempt to arrive at a better understanding of the flexibility of various national configurations of the mode of regulation in the European Community, the paper introduces the concept of social topology into regulation theory. This concept allows us to specify theoretically the notion of the configuration of structural forms in a way which takes into account politics and the logic of the State. In this general framework, the wage-labour nexus, the Welfare State, as well as their articulation, are analysed. Finally, Fordism, Keynesianism, the Welfare State and pluralistic democrary are depicted as interdependent elements of a ‘solidarist’ mode of regulation.