The Politics of the New International Financial Architecture: Reimposing Neoliberal Domination in the Global South

by Susanne Soederberg

Overview

Recent years have witnessed a veritable epidemic of financial crises - from Mexico, through South East Asia, Russia, Brazil and now Argentina. The rich industrial countries, led by the United States, have had to respond. This book examines the G7's attempts over the past decade to re-establish rules and a degree of order in the world financial system through the creation of the Financial Stability Forum and the G20, which they are calling the New International Financial Architecture. Susanne Soederberg asks:

· Why has the New International Financial Architecture emerged?
· At whose initiative?
· What does it involve?
· What are the underlying power relations?
· Who is benefiting?
· Will it really work?

The author argues, however, that this tinkering with the capitalist system will not achieve either sustained economic growth or stability in financial markets, let alone enhance the capability of developing countries to tackle the problems of mass poverty and social injustice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781842773796
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/01/2004
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

Susanne Soederberg taught International Political Economy at the University of Alberta, Canada and is currently an Associate Professor in Development Studies at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada. Her work has been published in jourbanals such as: Latin American Perspectives, Third World Quarterly, Global Governance, Review of International Political Economy, Historical Materialism, and the Socialist Register.
Susanne Soederberg taught International Political Economy at the University of Alberta, Canada and is currently an Associate Professor in Development Studies at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada. Her work has been published in jourbanals such as: Latin American Perspectives, Third World Quarterly, Global Governance, Review of International Political Economy, Historical Materialism, and the Socialist Register.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
Abbreviations

1. Transcending the 'Common Sense' of the New International Financial Architecture
Unexplored Areas of the New Building / The United States and Free Capital Mobility / The Crisis of Global Capitalism and the Dollar Wall Street Regime / The Dollar Wall Street Regime, Open Capital Accounts, and the South: An Unsustainable Trinity? / The Argument Restated / Outline of the Book

2. The Mexican Peso Crisis and the Foundations of the New International Financial Architecture
The Old International Financial Architecture /The Demise of Mexico's ISI / The First Wave of Neoliberalism: The de la Madrid Sexenio / The Second Wave of Neoliberalism: Continental Rationalization / The Peso Crisis / The Initial Response from Washington / The IMF as 'Crisis Manager': Freezing Contradictions

3. The New International Financial Architecture: A New Procrustean Bed for the South?
Contesting the Consensus: The Crisis of Authority of US Structural Power / Freezing Contradictions: The Anatomy of Imposed American Leadership / The Continuing Contradictions of Imposed Leadership / A Procrustean Bed for the South? / The Contradictions of Imposed Leadership Revisited

4. Unravelling Washington's Judgement Calls: The Cases of the Chilean and Malaysian Capital Controls
The Epicentre of Structural Power in the Global Political Economy / Contradictions of Free Capital Mobility: A View from the South / Washington Strikes Back / Chilean Capital Control 1991-1998 / The Malaysian Capital Control 1998-1999 / Continuing Instability for Emerging Markets?

5. Deconstructing the New International Standard of Corporate Governance: An Emerging Disciplinary Strategy for the South?
The East Asian Debacle as Threat and Opportunity: The Origins of Standardizing Corporate Governance / The New International Disciplinary Landscape of Standardizing Standards and Codes / Constructing Common Values in the South / The Political Economy of Dominance: Institutional Investors/ Neoliberal Discipline Beyond Corporate Governance

6. Linkages between the New International Financial Architecture and the Emerging Development Architecture: The Case of the Monterrey Consensus
The Washington Consensus and the Crisis of Capitalism / Neoliberalism under Fire: New Threats and Opportunities / Old Wine in a New Bottle: Recasting Neoliberal Domination / A Critical Assessment of Trade and Financial Liberalization as Tools of Development / The Excluded Debate: The Case of the Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism / Financing for Whose Development?/The Linkages Revealed

References
Index

Editorial Reviews

Full of facts and persuasive arguments, Susanne Soederberg's book deconstructs the 'commonsense' understanding of the new international financial architecture that the United States has imposed on the world over the last twenty years.” —Giovanni Arrighi, author of The Long Twentieth Century

“This book is an invaluable resource to international activists who are struggling to be architects of a better future for humanity, and who know that the world must change profoundly if it is to change at all.” —Molly Kane, Inter Pares

“I highly recommend the analysis of this book to all those who are struggling for another pattern of globalization based on social and international justice.” —Samir Amin

From the Publisher