Alliance Capitalism

Michael L. Gerlach’s Alliance Capitalism offers a penetrating exploration into the network of intercorporate alliances that has shaped Japan’s economic landscape in the postwar period. With a focus on practices such as the keiretsu - clusters of affiliated companies spanning banks, trading firms, and industries like automobiles and electronics - Gerlach illuminates how these networks have enabled Japan’s remarkable industrial success. By juxtaposing Japanese cooperative strategies with American competitive norms, the book challenges conventional economic wisdom. Gerlach explains how overlapping political, social, and economic forces give rise to these innovative alliances, providing a fresh perspective on the dynamics of corporate interaction and the broader challenges of coordinating diverse economic models. Combining rigorous analysis with broad theoretical insights, Alliance Capitalism invites economists, sociologists, and social scientists alike to reconsider the methods of exchange and collaboration in an increasingly complex global environment.