Varieties of Regulatory Capitalism: Getting the Most Out of the Comparative Method

The rationale behind this special issue’s stepwise analysis of cross‐sectoral and cross‐national variations and similarities of regulatory reforms is explained. The processes of case selection and inference are clarified and justified. At the same time, the article offers a strategy for an increase in the number of cases without compromising the strength of case‐oriented analysis. William Whewell’s notion of consilience is employed to (a) justify the inclusion of sectoral as well as national cases; (b) justify different degrees of in‐depth analysis according to the inferential role of the case in the research design; and (c) suggest a distinction in the inferential process between comparisons that enhance internal and external validity. The article concludes with a systematic examination of cross‐sectoral and cross‐national variations in a table that provides a “panoramic snapshot” and “holistic picture” of the combination of variations and commonalities of the cases analyzed.