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Introduction

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Book cover Human Rights Practices during Financial Crises

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Abstract

Financial crises have been a common menace that has plagued the advanced and the emerging economies alike. These crises have come in different shapes and forms. In this chapter, Gautam puts forth the argument for a human rights-based evaluation of systemic banking crises in the low-income countries. The chapter presents a succinct review of the existing explanations for why governments renege on their commitments to women’s economic rights and physical integrity rights during economic shocks. It provides a synopsis of the theoretical argument developed in this book that places the political economy of reforms at the center of the explanation. It briefly highlights the important empirical findings of this study.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Financialization is a historical trend since the late twentieth century that marks the rise of financial sector in the working of the economy. Gerald Epstein (2005, p. 3) defines financialization as the increasing role of financial motives, financial markets, financial actors, and financial institutions in the operation of domestic and international economies. See Gerald Davis and Suntae Kim (2015, pp. 203–21) for a review of the causes and consequences of financialization.

  2. 2.

    See Chaps. 1 and 2 (Donnelly 2013, pp. 7–39) for general discussion, Chaps. 1, 2, and 3 (Nickel 2007, pp. 7–52) and (Beitz 2009, pp. 1–47) for philosophical perspectives, and Chaps. 1 and 2 (Levy and Sznaider 2010, pp. 1–44) and a review of human rights (Somers and Roberts 2008, pp. 385–425) for sociological perspectives.

  3. 3.

    See Chap. 2 (Balakrishnan et al. 2016, pp. 12–29) and also Chap. 1 (Carmona 2014, pp. 23–56) for an in-depth discussion about the application of human rights principles to economic analysis and policy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of North Georgia, Dahlonega, GA, USA

    Rana S. Gautam

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  1. Rana S. Gautam
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Gautam, R.S. (2019). Introduction. In: Human Rights Practices during Financial Crises. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03670-6_1

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