Inaugural Lecture: Adam Smith Chair in Sustainable Capitalism

Professor Adam Dixon gave his inaugural lecture entitled From State Capitalism to Sustainable Capitalism in person at Panmure House on 19 October 2023. In this lecture, Professor Dixon unpacked the nature, drivers, and logics of the new state capitalism, and considered the potential role of states as owners/investors in shaping sustainability transitions and decarbonisation.

“The state is back, and it means business. Over the last twenty years we have seen a return to state-led development in the Global South, a return to explicit forms of active industrial policy in the Global North, and the massive growth of state-owned enterprises, sovereign wealth funds, and other state entities such as development banks. For many commentators, the growth of state intervention signals the emergence of a new state capitalism. Although China often looms large in these debates, this development is global and not limited to emerging markets. Hence, it is not clear if we can simply reduce what we are seeing to explanations of ‘capitalism as usual’, where the state always has a crucial role. There is an aggregate expansion of the state’s role as promoter, supervisor, and owner of capital across the spaces of the world capitalist economy. If the latter part of the 20th century was referred to as the international liberal order, we may well have to refer to the 21st as the state-capitalist international order.” Professor Adam Dixon

The lecture and Q&A session can be viewed in full below.