Showing papers in "Review of International Political Economy in 2003"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe how the three agreements constitute a modern version of Friedrich List's 'kicking away the ladder' and outline some needed changes in the way we think about development and in the role of multilateral organizations.
Abstract: The world is currently experiencing a surge of international regulations aimed at limiting the development policy options of developing country governments. Of the three big agreements coming out of the Uruguay Round ‐ on investment measures (TRIMS), trade in services (GATS), and intellectual property rights (TRIPS) ‐ the first two limit the authority of developing country governments to constrain the choices of companies operating in their territory, while the third requires the governments to enforce rigorous property rights of foreign (generally Western) firms. Together the agreements make comprehensively illegal many of the industrial policy instruments used in the successful East Asian developers to nurture their own industrial and technological capacities and are likely to lock in the position of Western countries at the top of the world hierarchy of wealth. The paper describes how the three agreements constitute a modern version of Friedrich List’s ‘kicking away the ladder’. It then outlines some needed changes in the way we think about development and in the role of multilateral organizations. It concludes that the practical prospects for change along these lines are slender, but not negligible.
536 citations
TL;DR: In this article, globalization or denationalization? Review of International Political Economy: Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 1-22, 2003, p. 1.
Abstract: (2003). Globalization or denationalization? Review of International Political Economy: Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 1-22.
222 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw on the examples of France and Germany to show that considerable change has indeed occurred in national corporate governance systems, particularly due to the growing influence of the stock market.
Abstract: Contemporary research on comparative corporate governance was initially preoccupied with the question of differences in national systems of corporate governance. In recent years, however, the focus has shifted to change as some scholars argue that there are growing pressures on national systems of corporate governance to converge on a model that supports an increased focus on shareholder value, that is, a model that closely resembles the US system of corporate governance. In opposition to this view, others predict that systems of corporate governance around the world will continue to diverge. Drawing on the examples of France and Germany I show that considerable change has indeed occurred in national governance systems. Particularly important has been the growing influence of the stock market. Existing theories are inadequate for understanding the political economy of the changes that have taken place in the French and German systems of corporate governance as well as the likelihood that they will continu...
142 citations
TL;DR: The financial crisis of the late 1990s marked an intellectual watershed for the global economy, and also for regionalism as the Janus face of globalization as mentioned in this paper. And at the beginning of the twenty-first cen...
Abstract: The financial crises of the late 1990s marked an intellectual watershed for the global economy, and also for regionalism as the Janus face of globalization. At the beginning of the twenty-first cen...
108 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors address some of the principal demands to historicize Gramsci before discerning any contemporary relevance, by tackling such demands within their own terms and according to their own stipulations.
Abstract: Across debates within political and international theory similar demands have been made concerning the need to 'historicize' the theoretical and practical legacy of the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. Yet little attention has been hitherto granted to the substantive ontological and epistemological basis of such demands. By outlining a series of interpretative controversies and examining in detail the question of historicizing Gramsci, this article addresses some of the principal demands to historicize Gramsci before discerning any contemporary relevance. By tackling such demands within their own terms and according to their own stipulations an immanent critique is developed. This tactic of an immanent critique offers an approach to the history of ideas useful to the present, it locates ideas both in and beyond their context, and it also pushes one to consider what might be historically limited in a theoretical and practical translation of past ideas in relation to alternative conditions.
84 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the formation of an economic union requires that the homogeneity of domestic economic institutions and the process of regional integration reinforce each other, and the most successful case of integration, the European Union, does evince a pattern of positive interaction between the two variables, while less successful cases, found in Latin America, are lacking in this mechanism of mutual influence.
Abstract: This work argues that the formation of an economic union requires that the homogeneity of domestic economic institutions and the process of regional integration reinforce each other. Granger causality tests on four cases of regional integration in the Americas, Asia and Europe (1975 through 1995) confirm our thesis. These cases include the Andean Pact, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Central American Common Market and the European Union. The most successful case of integration - the European Union - does evince a pattern of positive interaction between the two variables, while less successful cases, found in Latin America, are lacking in this mechanism of mutual influence. We further discuss several regional groups that have recently emerged and use our theoretical implications to assess their future development.
84 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the conditions under which international financial standards succeed and argue that the cooperation of private sector agents is a necessary condition for successful standards, and this cooperation hinges on certain elements of institutional design.
Abstract: This article explores the conditions under which international financial standards succeed. While rationalist accounts treat the successful creation of international standards as a relatively straightforward exercise, I suggest otherwise. The cooperation of private sector agents is a necessary condition for successful standards, and this cooperation hinges on certain elements of institutional design. Using an assessment of the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), I explore issues of institutional design and effectiveness. On the basis of surveys of mutual fund managers and government officials, I argue that because the private sector has yet to become involved fully in the promulgation of the SDDS, the SDDS effort has not yet achieved its goals.
62 citations
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TL;DR: The management of money is always and everywhere political: for every policy choice, there is an alternative that some actors would prefer The contemporary salience of enormous and influential financial markets has obscured this immutable political reality, by leaving the impression that market forces transcend politics, and render political conflicts moot.
Abstract: The management of money is always and everywhere political: for every policy choice, there is an alternative that some actors would prefer The contemporary salience of enormous and influential financial markets has obscured this immutable political reality, by leaving the impression that market forces transcend politics, and render political conflicts moot Since market forces impose the ‘best practice’ on states, policies are chosen by the force of economic logic rather than by politics and the winners and losers must fall where they may But this is an illusion, albeit a powerful illusion, a consequence of the distinct and crucial role that ideas and beliefs play in the monetary arena: what people think about money, right or wrong, can create self-fulfilling prophecies In fact, economic theory is indeterminate in its ability to account for most monetary policy choices Even in a world of globalized finance, the difference between many plausible policies is of ambiguous, or, at most, modest economic ef
62 citations
TL;DR: The Maputo Development Corridor (MDC) as mentioned in this paper is a case study of a top-down project to reconfigure spatial areas along neo-liberal lines in Africa, where globalization and regionalization stimulates reactions involving the re-organization and re-territorialization of spaces in order to meet the challenges posed.
Abstract: The ideology of neo-liberalism is currently dominant at the elite level. This has profound implications for how development is viewed as best pursued. Currently, a process of regionalization projects, at both the macro- and micro-level, are reconfiguring parts of Africa as the continent's elites seek to promote economic integration as a means of latching onto what is perceived as the globalization juggernaut. However, such processes, and the case of the Maputo Development Corridor (MDC) is provided as a case study, cannot simply be defined as top-down projects to reconfigure spatial areas along neo-liberal lines: globalization and regionalization stimulates reactions involving the re-organization and re-territorialization of spaces in order to meet the challenges posed. Though existing regionalist projects, such as the MDC, reflect the impulses of a neo-liberal world, space for contesting alternatives exists and is nascent, with counter-reactions being continually generated, with diverse forms of regional...
60 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the relationship between state-transnational capital relationship in three East Asian developmental states (Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) through the lens of foreign economic policy (FEP) analysis.
Abstract: Various discourses and debates on the state - transnational capital relationship have emerged within the international political economy literature. The particular contribution offered here focuses on this relationship in three East Asian developmental states (Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan - the NIE-3) through the lens of foreign economic policy (FEP) analysis. In different ways their respective state governments have all worked closely alongside various forms of transnational capital in sustained yet evolving ‘adaptive partnerships’, and in accordance to largely state-determined FEP objectives. Moreover, these objectives broadly relate to the pursuit of economic security in the international system. While each of the NIE-3's own path of economic development has differed significantly, there nevertheless exist important similarities. This not just relates to being constituent to the East Asian regional economic dynamic but also their shared developmental state tradition. The relationship between the s...
53 citations
TL;DR: The critique of economic liberalism has come from such varied ideological sources as economic nationalism, Marxism, and embedded liberalism as mentioned in this paper, and these critiques have been reworked and updated in various ways to meet the neoliberal challenge.
Abstract: If neoliberal ideology was quite globally dominant at the time of RIPE"s creation, it is much less so ten years later. But what is replacing the ‘Washington consensus’? This question is difficult to answer in part because the critiques of neoliberalism have come from such varied ideological sources. Some opponents of neoliberalism draw inspiration from the three ideologies which presented the most prominent critiques of nineteenth-century classical economic liberalism: economic nationalism, Marxism and embedded liberalism. But history is not simply repeating itself. These ‘old’ critiques of economic liberalism have been reworked and updated in various ways to meet the neoliberal challenge. Equally important, other oppositional movements today present ‘newer’ critiques of economic liberalism, most notably those inspired by feminist thought, green ideology, and ‘civilizational’ perspectives on political economy.
TL;DR: Despite the widely recognized significance of technical systems in contemporary life, the implications of these systems for international institutions have not received much attention as discussed by the authors, despite the importance of such systems in modern life.
Abstract: Despite the widely recognized significance of technical systems in contemporary life, the implications of these systems for international institutions have not received much attention. This article...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors pointed out that while many countries in the region stand to gain from more substantive cooperation, they are likely to find certain cooperative goals difficult to achieve due to economic diversity, inter-state political rivalry and the influence exercised by the US.
Abstract: Since 1997, cooperation initiatives involving Asian countries have become more visible and ambitious. These initiatives reflect incentives for regional cooperation in Asia that are the product of prior levels of regional integration and international developments. While many countries in the region stand to gain from more substantive cooperation, they are likely to find certain cooperative goals difficult to achieve. This difficulty cannot be ascribed to the commonly cited obstacles to cooperation in Asia: economic diversity, inter-state political rivalry and the influence exercised by the US. Rather, parts of the new regional agenda are complicated by the kind of government organizations that exist in some countries. Government organizations that lack domestic regulatory capacity are poorly equipped to participate in some regional initiatives.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors call for the "ideational" matter of globalization to be taken more seriously and for studies of globalization discourse to occupy a more central position in the project of IPE.
Abstract: Debates about globalization are now central to the enterprise of IPE. The substantive research agenda of globalization studies has yielded a number of strategies to qualify or refute commonplace claims about globalization found in much policy discourse. Yet the achievements of such scholarship have not induced discernible shifts in the deployment of ‘globalization’ as a key shaper of the realities of contemporary political economy. At an analytical level globalization studies in IPE suffer from a number of ambiguities that relate to definition, measurement and the nature of "globalization" as a variable in explanation. Orthodox (rationalist) reasoning might seek to either abandon or ‘normalize’ the concept of ‘globalization’. In contrast, this article calls for the ‘ideational’ matter of globalization to be taken more seriously and for studies of globalization discourse to occupy a more central position in the project of IPE.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore institutionalism and New Labour as overlapping and intersecting responses to neoliberalism and the New Right, linking institutionalism to the Labour Party and its advocacy of networks and joined-up governance in much the same way as we have come to tie neoliberalism to New Right and its faith in the new public management.
Abstract: This paper explores institutionalism and New Labour as overlapping and intersecting responses to neoliberalism and the New Right. It links institutionalism to the Labour Party and its advocacy of networks and joined-up governance in much the same way as we have come to tie neoliberalism to the New Right and its faith in the new public management. Because the paper's interpretive approach modifies institutionalism, the link it draws between New Labour and institutionalism also points to something of a critique of these latter. At times, they seek to tame the contingency of social life by reducing the complex to theories about the allegedly given characteristics of institutional forms.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that the US debate concerning the pros and cons of "dollarization diplomacy" has two interesting historical precedents that help us understand the politics of US policymaking in this area.
Abstract: Beginning in 1999, US policymakers suddenly began to debate the idea of encouraging Latin American countries to adopt the US dollar as their domestic currency. In this article, I show that the US debate concerning the pros and cons of ‘dollarization diplomacy’ has two interesting historical precedents that help us understand the politics of US policymaking in this area. The first took place between 1900 and 1915 when the US also showed considerable interest in the idea of promoting the use of dollar within many Latin American countries. Then, in the 1940s and 1950s, US policymakers did an about-face and encouraged those same countries to ‘de-dollarize’. To date, these dramatic changes in this aspect of US-Latin American monetary relations in the twentieth century have received very little scholarly attention. But I argue that a study of them is useful in identifying what influences US foreign economic policy towards dollarization abroad today. I show how US policy, both in the past and present, has been i...
TL;DR: In the past and in the present, even-handed and unsentimental comparative research on the bourgeoisie as well as other, less privileged economic actors in the development scenario remains - regrettably - quite rare as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In the 1990s, Russian reformers vainly sought to discover a bourgeoisie committed to democracy, productive economic behaviour, and an ever more elusive 'civil society'. Their quest constituted the latest chapter in a centuries'-long struggle that began with the challenge posed by economists like N. F. Daniel'son (Marx's foremost disciple) to 'Orthodox' Marxists and to state capitalists of the tsarist regime. The latter two groups agreed to discount Daniel'son's data on the state-dependent, risk-averse and politically undemocratic behaviour of Russia's bourgeoisie, as well as the statistical and economic evidence that had led Marx to reconsider his skepticism about the role of peasantries in the development process. In the past and in the present, even-handed and unsentimental comparative research on the bourgeoisie as well as other, less privileged economic actors in the development scenario remains - regrettably - quite rare.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors go through the usual alternatives of too much/too little market in order to explain that the success of any liberalization process relies on the complementarity between market and intermediation.
Abstract: Emerging economies, which have since the end of the 1980s implemented a process of financial liberalization, are confronted at the same time with a banking crises. The latter highlights the role played by the institutional framework in the process of financial liberalization. The objective of this paper is to go through the usual alternatives of too much/ too little market in order to explain that the success of any liberalization process relies on the complementarity between market and intermediation. Institutions, defined as rule-following behaviour, represented the cornerstone of such an evolution. The point is that the solution to financial instability is to be found within the institutional dynamics in which emerging economies may benefit from intermediation in order to enforce the market process.
TL;DR: The authors argue that rationalist theories do provide important theoretical tools to understand the political economy of globalization, even in its hierarchical forms, by examining the changing forms of contractual relations between international organizations and non-governmental organizations, the functions of international credit rating agencies, and the growth of offshore tax havens.
Abstract: Recent scholarship on globalization has conflated methodological critiques of rationalism with ontological arguments. American rationalist paradigms of IPE, it is argued, are too state-centred and utilitarian to offer convincing explanations for emerging non-state forms of global governance. In response, this essay argues that rationalist theories do provide important theoretical tools to understand the political economy of globalization, even in its hierarchical forms. An examination of the changing forms of contractual relations between international organizations and non-governmental organizations, the functions of international credit rating agencies, and the growth of offshore tax havens, shows that underlying utilitarian incentives for political behaviour can be uncovered and explicated, even within these non-state forms of contemporary global governance. Consequently, the appropriateness of any given IPE method should depend upon the research question asked, not pre-existing assumptions about the i...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the degree to which a new global mode of regulation (MOR) or social structure of accumulation (SSA) has emerged which may help to promote long wave upswing in the world economy.
Abstract: This paper examines the degree to which a new global mode of regulation (MOR) or social structure of accumulation (SSA) has emerged which may help to promote long wave upswing in the world economy. A series of institutional proxies are employed in this paper. Attention is given to the system-functions of global productivity and demand , through the performance of the prevailing system of production-distribution (SPD); global financial stability , proxied by the operations of the IMF; and global conflict resolution over trade issues, proxied through the workings of the WTO. The main findings are threefold. First, the SPD is only partially developed so as to promote productivity and demand. Second, some significant financial stability functions have been instigated through the IMF. And third, the WTO is undergoing major conflict due to the opposing policy proposals and criticisms by non-government organizations. This supports the conclusion that only limited success has been made in the emergence of a globa...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate what political, structural and other factors either encourage or hinder the development of innovative communities of firms in the Japanese political economy and find that these innovative communities are often unlike other communities within their own national systems.
Abstract: Innovative communities of firms across economies share important institutional similarities. For example, fluid horizontal networks, university linkages, and supportive local and regional governments have been among the key factors supporting firm-level success. At the same time, these innovative communities are often unlike other communities of firms within their own national systems. What accounts for this? That is, what political, structural and other factors either encourage or hinder the development of innovative communities of firms? For under-performing political economies such as Japan and Germany the issue of innovation and its institutional co-requisites is of paramount importance. Past comparative research on the Japanese political economy has focused on issues of national convergence (Berger and Dore, 1996), or even the threat to Western (Anglo-American) forms of capitalist enterprise of the 'Eastern' type (e.g. Japan, Inc.) (Thurow, 1992). Recently, a number of
TL;DR: In this article, the new financial architecture as ethical discourse is discussed and moralizing finance is used as an ethical discourse in the context of international political economy, with a focus on finance.
Abstract: (2003). Review Article Moralizing finance: the new financial architecture as ethical discourse. Review of International Political Economy: Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 579-603.
TL;DR: The last quarter century has seen a broad and quite appropriate belief in market organization dev eloped into a dogmatic belief in the market as the best way to govern virtually all economic activities as discussed by the authors, which severely hinders the efforts of societies to find a suitable governance mode for the wide variety of activities for which simple market organization is not appropriate.
Abstract: The last quarter century has seen a broad and quite appropriate belief in the efficacy of market organization dev eloped into a dogmatic belief in the market as the best way to govern virtually all economic activities. This undiscriminating belief severely hinders the efforts of societies to find a suitable governance mode for the wide variety of activities for which simple market organization is not appropriate. This essay is concerned with laying out the complexities of market organization that often are needed to make it work well, and the range of activities where market organization does not work well as a basic governing mode.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors develop a spatial constructivist perspective wherein spaces of production and consumption and spaces of flows both are viewed as continually being reconstructed amid capitalism's dialectical tendencies toward fixity and mobility.
Abstract: Scholars from a range of perspectives question how the system of sovereign, territorial states is being impacted by the rise of cyberspace, a domain of information flows that apparently transcends state boundaries. Opinions range from those of neorealists who view these flows as posing a fundamental threat to state integrity to neoliberals who view them as one more opportunity for international cooperation. In this article, we hold that both of these views are based upon a liberal conception of space wherein there is a diametric tension between social activities that occur within state territory and those that occur across or outside state boundaries. In contrast, we develop a spatial constructivist perspective wherein spaces of production and consumption and spaces of flows both are viewed as continually being reconstructed amid capitalism's dialectical tendencies toward fixity and mobility. We conclude by suggesting that while the rise of trans-boundary information flows in cyberspace does not represent...
TL;DR: The succesful conclusion of the 1997 WTO agreements on trade in basic telemcommunication and financial services surprised many observers as discussed by the authors, but because most of the targeted states lacked firms that could benefit from access to the US market, and because the talks focussed only on individual sectors, it was uncertain that this strategy would have the desired effect.
Abstract: The succesful conclusion of the 1997 WTO agreements on trade in basic telemcommunication and financial services surprised many observers. During the negotiations, US officials took a hard line in demanding improved offers (including on sensitive issues such as foreign ownership and domestic deregulation) and threatened discriminatory treatment against countries they believed were free-riding. But because most of the targeted states lacked firms that could benefit from access to the US market, and because the talks focussed only on individual sectors, it was uncertain that this strategy would have the desired effect. Traditional approaches to understanding bargaining outcomes provide only partial explanations for the results of US pressure during these negotiations. This article argues that the negotiations created a widely perceived linkage between improved offers from the developing countries and a credible signal to foreign investors regarding the attractiveness of that country's territory as a location...
TL;DR: The World Trade Organization (WTO) as discussed by the authors is a central institutional framework for the international coordination of economic regulation, and it has been widely accepted that globalization in reality involves complex processes of reregulation.
Abstract: The recent debates about globalization show that it is a contested concept, reflecting very real conflicts about the nature and desirable trajectory of changes in the international political economy. Since the mid-1990s, the neoliberal view, which prioritized deregulation and the removal of barriers to market access, has been increasingly challenged. It is now more generally accepted that globalization in reality involves complex processes of reregulation. Far from entailing a shift to a 'free' world market, the global economy operates within a framework of multi-level governance. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in relation to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The package of agreements negotiated through the 'bargain-linkage diplomacy' of the Uruguay Round established the WTO as a central institutional framework for the international coordination of economic regulation. This completes the organizational triptych designed at Bretton Woods, with the WTO complementing the IMF's role in monetary management and that of the World Bank in development finance. However, the WTO is a different animal from the still-born International Trade Organization (ITO) proposed in 1946. The ITO envisaged an institutional framework through which a managed relaxation of trade barriers would go hand in hand with measures to stabilize primary commodity prices, control business monopolies and restrictive practices, and ensure respect for internationally agreed labour standards (Dell, 1990; Drache, 2000).1 In contrast, the imperative that drives the WTO is to remove barriers to market access, usually described as 'negative integration'. The complex and comprehensive set of agreements to which all WTO members must subscribe are almost entirely concerned with setting limits, or in WTO language 'disciplines', on national state regulation. With the major and significant exception of intellectual property rights, it generally leaves to
TL;DR: The Review of International Political Economy (RIPE) as discussed by the authors places both the birth of RIPE the journal and the critiques that it has spawned of the so-called Washington consensus in a longer historical context.
Abstract: This editorial introduction to the tenth anniversary issue of the Review of International Political Economy places both the birth of RIPE the journal and the critiques that it has spawned of the so-called ‘Washington consensus’ in a longer historical context. We map the emergence of two distinct ‘Washington Consensi’ – one based around GATT/Bretton Woods/Welfare States/and Kenynesian ideas and one based around the WTO/Open Capital Accounts/Hard Currencies and New-Classical Ideas. We argue that RIPE appeared at the moment when this second of these consensi appeared most hegemonic. RIPE’s distinct voice over the last decade reflects this through its critiques of the second Washington consensus and in its pluralistic and critical mode of inquiry. We place the essays that follow into this wider discussion of broad trends in the IPE.
TL;DR: This paper argued that the economic meltdown was a symptom of the collapse of the social coalitions underpinning the developmental states, and pointed out how governments were able to paper over cracks in their domestic social alliances through debt-financed industrial expansion until the mid-1990s.
Abstract: Rather than seeing the spectacular collapse of stock and currency markets in East and Southeast Asia in 1997-98 as a financial crisis caused by imprudent banking practices and ‘crony capitalism,’ this article argues that the economic meltdown was a symptom of the collapse of the social coalitions underpinning the developmental states. The first section charts the contours of these social alliances between the late 1940s and the mid 1980s. The second section demonstrates that though the creation of a regional division of labor had enabled these economies to withstand the debt crisis, the progressive trans-border expansion of corporate production and procurement networks rendered national industrial policies increasingly incoherent. It charts how governments were able to paper over cracks in their domestic social alliances through debt-financed industrial expansion till the mid-1990s. Finally, the last section highlights emerging tensions in the different national constellations of power and privilege.
TL;DR: The rocketing of Japan to the forefront of world market competition in the post-war period spawned a high-stakes academic debate over the wellsprings of Japan's success as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The rocketing of Japan to the forefront of world market competition in the post-war period spawned a high stakes academic debate over the wellsprings of Japan's success. As outlined by Preston in Understanding Modern Japan (hereafter UMJ), argumentation largely revolved around two basic positions. On one side were perspectives animated by so-called 'modernization theory', which viewed the post war political economy of Japan as but another confirmation of the maxims of mainstream economics: economic development was synonymous with market society; there existed tendencies towards convergence in the political economy of developed states; and the telos of world history was capitalist development as such. At the other pole, however, debate swirled over the extent to which the post-war growth of Japan defied modernization theory and embodied a host of extra-market principles of development; principles that mitigated against any purported convergence of market society and that would