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POL VPGF - The Politics of Global Finance CLOSED FOR FURTHER ENROLLMENT

Faculty
Duncan Wigan, Assistant Professor, James Perry, Assistant Professor
Course Coordinator
Duncan Wigan, James Perry
Course content, structure and teaching
This course provides an in-depth analysis of the global financial system from a political perspective. Examining the Geopolitics of Global Finance, the course addresses the following questions: Who governs finance, and to what end(s)? What are the core political cleavages in the regulation of finance? How does global finance interact with the state and the inter-state system? How do the politics of global finance impact on the international business community?
Taking pluralist approach, this course engages in a debate between orthodox (neoclassical) approaches to finance and the more heterodox critical tradition found in institutionalist and economic sociology literature.
The aim is to elaborate on the bridges that must now be constructed between orthodox and critical approaches, given the current (and re-current) crisis. As such the course is squarely premised on the belief that finance must be understood by situating it in a broader social, political and historical context if it is to serve its intended – and indeed broadly socially beneficial – ends. It is on this more ethical basis that the relationship between politics, business and finance can flourish.
The structure of the course is based upon an examination of episodic financial regimes in terms of their mode of operation and governance. Starting with the deregulatory moves of the 1980s, including – crucially – the gradual repeal of Glass-Steagal and London’s Big Bang, the course traces the politics behind the
exceptional expansion of finance in the 1990s/2000s, and the ensuing crisis.
It then examines a variety of cases selected specifically to illuminate the core dynamics of present juncture. Cases will include Basel, Basel II, the Plaza Accord, the so-called Bretton-Woods 2 arrangement between the Yuan and US Dollar, the EU’s Capital Adequacy Directive, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, and the Financial Stability Forum
The method of this course is avowedly pluralist, heterodox and interpretative. The overriding intention then, is that students graduating from the course can temper default methodological approaches via a wider intellectual experience.
The course's development of personal competences
Students will be able to conduct independent research, and work in teams, to interrogate particular historical processes and phenomena, recognize and question their own assumptions and broader societal assumptions in relation to the constitution, operation and dynamics of a global financial system. Students will in addition continue in their development of core competencies in the practice and successful execution of academic analysis, informed and structured debate, and the capacity for innovative thinking.
Learning Objectives
At the end of the course students should:
- Recognize, develop and critique a political approach to global finance
- Situate such approaches within the full array of theoretical and methodological perspectives on the study and practice of finance
- Develop a familiarity with the contemporary development of the global financial system
- Debate the origins, dynamics and purposes of global finance
- Identify and elaborate the political tensions that are inherent in any global financial system
Type of examination, exam aids and assessment
The oral examination will be based on a short paper (approximately six pages) handed in two weeks before the examination. The paper will deal with questions raised throughout the course during lectures. A selection of questions suitable for this purpose will be distributed to students prior to the paper submission deadline. The oral exam will take the student’s paper as a starting point, but will probe issues and problematiques raised throughout the course.
Recommended literature
Books(Indicative):
Eichengreen, B. (2003) Capital Flows and Crisies, London: MIT Press.
Schwartz, Herman M. (2009) States Versus markets: The Emergence of a Global Economy, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Strange, Susan (1998) Mad Money, Manchester: Manchester UP
Articles (Indicative):
Abdelal, R. (2006) ‘Writing the Rules of Global Finance: France, Europe and Capital Liberalisation’ , Review of International Political Economy, 13:1, pp. 1-27.
Arrighi, G. and Silver, B. (2001) ‘Capitalism and World (dis)order’, Review of International Studies, 27, pp. 257-279.
Cohen, Benjamin (2006) ‘Pheonix Risen: the Resurrection of Global Finance’, World Politics, 48:2, pp. 268-296.
Frieden, J. (1991) ‘Invested Interests: the Politics of National Economic Policies in
a World of Global Finance’, International Organization, 45:4, pp. 425-451.
Gamble, A., J. Eatwell, N. Girvan, S. Griffiths-Jones, P. Minford (1999) ‘Debate: the Regulation of Global Finance’, Special issue New Political Economy, 4:3.
De Goede, M. (2001) ‘Discourses of Scientific Management and the Failure of Long Term Capital Mananagement’, New Political Economy, 6:2, pp. 149-170.
Kirshner, J. (2003) ‘Money is Politics’, Review of International Political Economy, 10:4, pp. 645-660.
Krippner, G. (2005) ‘The Financialisation of the World Economy’, Socio-economic Review, 3, pp. 173-208.
Lipuma, E. and Lee, B. (2005) Financial Derivatives and the Rise of Circulation’, Economy and Society, 34:3, pp.404-427.
Seabrooke, L. (2006) ‘Everyday legitimacy and International Financial Orders’,New Political Economy, 12:1, pp. 2-18.
Stiglitz, Joseph E. (2009) ‘Death Cometh for the Greenback’, National Interest, Nov/Dec, 104, pp.50-59
Wolfson, M. (2000) ‘Neoliberalism and International Financial Instability’, Review of Radical Political Economics, 32:3, pp. 369-78

Last updated by Henriette Andersen 31/08/2010