Group items tagged

This article explores the ideational dynamics that shaped the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) campaign to establish capital mobility as a formal obligation of IMF membership during the 1990s. First, the article examines how the IMF made the issue of capital account liberalisation 'legible' through constructing a particular 'legibility map' on capital mobility, which was rigorously promoted across its membership. Second, the article explores the processes through which the IMF's legibility map on capital mobility was accepted by the organisation's member states. The article traces debates within the IMF Executive Board relating to the decision to amend the IMF's Articles of Agreement to give the organisation a formal mandate and jurisdiction over capital account liberalisation to complement its existing mandate and jurisdiction over current account transactions.

"A survey of the literature on the political economy of global financial liberalization shows how little has been written on the role of the OECD, and how the Principal-Agent (PA) theory, complemented by Constructivist tools, can be applied helpfully to analyse this process. We show that the OECD's Committee on Capital Movements and Invisible Transactions (CMIT) played an entrepreneurial role in encouraging the liberalization of capital flows. In particular, we argue that the CMIT slipped by acting beyond its core delegation roles and against the preferences of the OECD member states' governments. This was done by discussing and seeking to expand the list of issue areas on which controls should be lifted to include short-term capital movements and the right of establishment, to adopt an extended understanding of reciprocity, and to eliminate a range of additional discriminatory measures on capital flows. Acting as institutional entrepreneurs, the CMIT members took advantage of the overlap among the networks in which they were engaged to spread their ideas to the member states. The CMIT's work affected the member states' willingness to make irrevocable, multilateral commitments through a combination of peer pressure and vertical institutional interconnectedness. Through the work of the CMIT, the OECD was an important actor in capital liberalization, in addition to the role played by other international organizations."

Using a critical review of selected works on Africa by prominent African intellectuals, this interdisciplinary study concludes that, contrary to Amartya Sen's theory about the "real freedoms" that people enjoy in democratic states, these freedoms cannot be realized in Africa, because the continent's mode of capitalism is dependent upon international finance. This system cannot function as an autonomous structure and has engendered major political contradictions in the continent's nation-states. The capitalist ruling elites have hindered the expansion of full democratic rights in Africa by encouraging and exploiting the politics of class division. The African experience with liberal democracy indicates that Sen's theory of development and "real freedoms" fails to take into account these contradictions as well as the religious and cultural idioms in Africa that run counter to liberal conceptions of emancipation. Achieving democracy and freedom in Africa is not merely a question of capacity building, it involves resolving difficult issues of power - particularly, in class and gender relations. The essay concludes by suggesting that there needs to be a shift away from conceptualizing development in terms of only economic factors to a new approach which combines more enlightened neoliberal capitalism with new indigenous strategies of development.

"A new authoritarian order is taking shape, this time within rather than against the capitalist world order. Globalization, in short, is shedding its liberal cloak. Post-Cold War triumphalism was premature in the funeral it staged for the Second World, defined in terms of its autocracy rather than communism. The capitalist character of the new Second World lulls Western globalists into moral as well as geopolitical (hence moral realist) indifference. For many in high places, it is still inconceivable that global capitalism could be a house divided. "Globalization" turns out to be anything but the steadfast ally of democratization it purports to be. It is in fact the greatest gift to a new breed of authoritarian capitalists. The case of China alone is enough to dispel the notion that capitalism and democracy are two sides of the same globalist coin. But Sino-globalization is only unique in that it makes no pretense about its authoritarian ends and means. To revitalize democratization as a global force, a radically different mode of globalization will have to be fostered. We call this the Global Third Way, but what it amounts to is People Power without borders."

"This paper theorizes about the new international financial architecture as a manifestation of the 'second face of neoliberalism' - financial market reregulation through technocratic obfuscation and insularity from democratic political pressure. Using a more expansive definition of the new international financial architecture, one that includes the institutional nexus of international monetary management along with the rules and regulatory bodies governing capital, this argument is developed through an analysis of the origins and functions of two institutions comprising the new international financial architecture - the Basel Capital Accord and the diffusion of inflation targeting regimes across central banks. This paper excavates the neoliberal logic inscribed in these institutions and further shows how these new forms of institutional logic contributed to the financial crisis of 2008 by putting in place a set of opportunities and constraints that led to rapid growth in the market for asset-backed securities. The implications of this analysis for the future of regulatory reform are discussed, with particular attention paid to the question of what role central banks should play in this process."

Dominant theoretical approaches in political economy today, whether they posit convergence to neoliberal capitalism, binary divergence of capitalisms, or tripartite differentiation of financial governance, downplay the importance of state action. Their me

The following is the second of a two-part section series. The first section, 'Global capitalism and the states system', brought together a diverse group of scholars to examine a number of issues raised by Alex Callinicos's article 'Does capitalism need th

The goal of this article is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the impacts of finance and corporate governance reforms on organised labour since 1980. The argument is made that contemporary institutional and 'Varieties of Capitalism' as well as 'Varieties of Unionism' perspectives on labour market reform have overstated the power of states, institutions and organised interests in deflecting global economic pressures. Drawing on a range of recent Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) statistics and qualitative studies, it is claimed that current developments in finance and corporate governance mark a fundamental break with post-war developments. Capital has reasserted its power over organised labour and labour markets not only in the US and UK, but throughout Western Europe as well. In assessing how far this reversal has gone, the article focuses on three key political economic changes: i) the rise in finance and adoption of corporate 'shareholder' systems; ii) the expansion of mergers and acquisitions and their negative effects on unionisation and manufacturing jobs; and iii) the effects of financial pressures and corporate reform on collective bargaining and wages. This is the first study to report on comparative changes and qualitative reforms to both finance and labour in 13 OECD countries between 1980 and 2005.

To get to that future, however, we have to deal with the present. Capitalism is in crisis, but so is left politics in its traditional forms. The crisis of left politics is unfortunate given the fact that capitalism's manifest inability to meet human needs and protect the ecological integrity of the planet makes socialism more urgent than ever. The mainstream Left is unlikely to overcome its crisis unless and until it, too, starts to recognize this urgency. This urgency, moreover, is increased by the fact that capitalism's crisis is already fueling racism and strengthening neofascist and anti-immigrant political forces.68 To counter these forces and build a better world, socialism must be reinvented. The vision of economic democracy can contribute to this objective, just as the strategy of economic democratization can turn the popular struggles proliferating around the world today into the means through which such a vision comes to life.

Everyday use of communication technologies within social networks for civic and civil behaviors The structure of people's social networks predicts democratic engagement. However, the relative contribution of different types of social ties to civic and civil behaviors is unclear. This paper explores the role of core networks - bonding social capital - to the role of overall network diversity - bridging social capital - for participation in formal civic institutions and informal civil behaviors. Emphasis is placed on the possible role of heterogeneity within core networks - political disagreement and the presence of nonkin ties - and on frequency of interaction, in-person and mediated: mobile phone and the Internet. This study finds that overall network diversity is a more consistent and substantive predictor of civic and civil behaviors than the size or heterogeneity of the small number of ties that make up the core network of most people.

Haug pursues two objectives in this essay. First, he wants to develop a better understanding of the global conflicts at the beginning of the twenty-first century. To reach that understanding, it is, he argues, necessary to get beyond the crude empiricist language of the mainstream. Secondly, therefore, he elaborates and further develops certain key aspects of Antonio Gramsci's theory of hegemony (consensual leadership through multilateralism vs. mere supremacy, "hegemonic sacrifice," etc.) in order better to grasp the lines of conflicts in national as well as international politics. Haug takes as his starting point the guiding question of a 2006 conference in Athens, namely whether the current political conjuncture should be interpreted as one of imperialism or, in Hardt and Negri's sense, as empire. He recasts this question from one of interpretation to one of history, and in so doing he rearticulates the concepts of empire vs. imperialism. He sees transnational high-tech capitalism as having arrived at a crossroads. One path from this crossroads, he argues, leads to rival imperialisms; and the other path leads to the formation of a regulated world market flanked by world ecological and social politics, to, in short, an "empire" of transnational capitalism. The big question underlying Haug's project is this: Will the United States succeed, after the political, military, and economic debacle of the phase of the unilateral "imperialist" politics of George W. Bush, in recovering a political leadership role in the world? The effort of the United States under President Obama to do so must contend with the Bush legacy, consisting of two unwinnable wars, a deep economic crisis that began as a financial crisis, and a politically and culturally divided nation. Haug's essay does not pretend to answer this larger question; its more modest purpose is foundational, that is, to articulate the question more clearly and to establish the prerequisites and criteria for a pro

WASHINGTON, D.C. | January 19, 2012 The Mayors for Freedom to Marry campaign will meet on Friday in Washington, the nation's capital, to garner support for same-sex marriages nationwide. The campaign is led by the Mayor of San Diego, California, Jerry Sanders. Joining Sanders in Washington is Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as well as the mayors of Boston, Chicago and Houston. Freedom to Marry was fonuded in 2003 by Evan Wolfson, the father of the modern marriage movement. The campaign's mission is to garner support, grow the national majority for marriage and end federal marriage discrimination through the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. The San Diego Mayor, previously opposed to same-sex marriage, in a Los Angeles Times report states that he "could not accept the idea that his daughter Lisa is less worthy of forming a lasting relationship because she is a lesbian."

"European integration is interpreted in this paper as the route by which (West) Germany, profiting from close ties with the English-speaking West, was able to restore its full sovereignty and economic pre-eminence in Europe. Yet in shaping the actual integration process, it was France which played the key role. Most of the landmark steps towards the current EU were French proposals to pre-empt Anglophone-German collusion; creating European structures in which a resurgence of Germany (politically and economically) was made subject to permanent negotiation. German unification in 1991 removed the one reason why successive governments of the Federal Republic had gone along with this. Paradoxically, sovereign Germany today finds itself bound by the dense networks of consultation and decision-making which make the EU unique in the field of regional integration. The paper shows that between 1992 and 2005, German capital has moved to the centre of the network of corporate interlocks in the North Atlantic area. This helps to explain why in the post-1991, post-Soviet era of neoliberal, finance-driven globalisation, Germany is increasingly 'speaking for Europe', as its corporations have become nodal points in the communication structures through which the responses to the challenges facing the EU and the West at large are being shaped."

Una discusión efectiva y directa entre gobernantes y representantes del movimiento social de América Latina y África buscará promover el Foro Social Mundial Temático (FSMT), que se realizará del 29 al 31 de enero en la capital del nororiental estado brasi

Society and Governments: debates and alternatives for a post-crisis world" is the name of a Thematic World Social Forum meeting being held in the capital of the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia.

Anyone who is still trying to look for neutrality or balance in the Thai media in these days of political ferment, ahead of large anti-government protests expected in the capital, has a pretty tough job. "Thai society is very divided politically and I do

This paper revisits Foucault's understanding of the importance of subjectivity for politics, focusing in particular on his claims concerning the sorts of demands placed on the subject by contemporary capitalism. Moves to extend the application of Foucault

Governments, world-wide, are preoccupied with avoiding policy failure. A high level of policy capacity is considered one indicator of addressing this issue. Canada is typical of most countries where policy-related work tends to be centralized within its national capital city (Ottawa). There have been criticisms that on-the-ground perspectives are not conceded in policy decisions. Given the vast size and the decentralization of power, very little research has been dedicated to policy work conducted in its regions and whether it contributes to strengthening policy capacity. This article employs eight key hypotheses about contribution of Canadian regionally-based federal policy work to policy capacity based upon data derived from a national survey

The "aestheticisation of politics", a term coined by Walter Benjamin, refers to a critique of various modes of politics considered to be irrational in leftist, critical theory. The critique ties aestheticised politics to fascism and capitalism, thereby pr

This essay theorizes globalization as not new, but rather a new iteration of the ongoing liberal dialectic between capitalism and democracy now writ large on the entire world. Using theoretical insights from Polanyi's analysis of the rise and fall of lais