US Power in International Finance: The Victory of Dividends

by L. Seabrooke

Overview

Leonard Seabrooke argues that they key to understanding 'change' in international finance in the last forty years rests with US structural power. He demonstrates for the reader how structural power draws from embedded state-societal relations and how the US promotion of 'direct financing' has encouraged Britain, Japan, and Germany to 'catch-up' to US-led innovations. In drawing considerably on multidisciplinary insight, the book will benefit all those who wish to understand more about 'change' in the international political economy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780333921678
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	04/17/2001
Series:	International Political Economy Series
Edition description:	2001
Pages:	287
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.04(d)

About the Author

LEONARD SEABROOKE works in Government and International Relations, School of Economics and Political Science, at the University of Sydney, and has taught international political economy at the School of Political and International Studies, Flinders University. He is currently researching a comparative historical analysis of the sources of international financial power in the late-nineteenth and late-twentieth centuries.

Table of Contents

List of Tables List of Figures Preface List of Abbreviations The Political Economy of Direct Financing State Capacity and Finance in IPE 1960-68: From Orthodoxy to Heresy 1969-81: The Privileges of Uncertainty 1982-91: Indebted Innovation 1992-200: Crises and Consumer Credit Conclusion: The Victory of Dividends and the Dividends of Victory Notes Select Bibliography List of IPE and Related Websites Index

Editorial Reviews

Leonard Seabrooke has written a most impressive book, not only for its extraordinary scope of empirical research on an important and timely topic - the sources of international finance - but for the adeptness with which the author breaks down the archaic divide between International Relations, Sociology and State Theory. Accordingly, I can unreservedly recommend it to all students and scholars who are interested in a wider approach to understanding the contemporary world political economy to that found in mainstream IR approaches.' - John M. Hobson, University of Sydney

From the Publisher

Seabrooke (political economy, U. of Sydney, Australia) analyzes the techniques of Washington and Wall Street to promote direct financing<-->this is the dynamics he terms "structural power," a central concept<-->and argues that these techniques influence finance in the international political economy. The text provides a critique of new realism in favor of Weber then moves onto historical chapters, which analyze developments from 1960 to the present period. The collapse of Bretton Woods, banking crises, and regulatory renewal are discussed for the period before 1981 after which the focus is on changes within financial markets. The "victory of dividends" refers to "the embeddedness of finance in American society" and how this informs the "structural power" of the US. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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