Recent contributions in comparative political economy have made much of the ‘growth model perspective’, presenting it as a way to ‘rethink political economy’. This paper argues that the origins of the growth model approach can be found in contributions made by Michel Freyssenet in the framework of Gerpisa in the 1990s/2000. By presenting the contributions and limitations of Freyssenet’s approach, it is possible to establish how contemporary growth model approaches fail to establish a solid link between political economy and heterodox macroeconomics. It appears that an approach that starts from the differentiation of interests of social groups and considers the autonomy of politics has more potential to achieve this task, allowing to recover the inspiration of article on the political limits to economic policy.