Skip to main content

Disciplining the International Political Economy through Finance

  • Chapter
The Diffusion of Power in Global Governance

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in International Relations ((PSIR))

Abstract

Few would dispute that the past two or three decades have been, in many ways, the heyday of neo-liberalism and market capitalism. Looking back, it is pertinent to ask whether the rise of neo-liberalism over the past three decades made the global economy progressively more free of coercive power and governmental ‘interventions’. Has the economic order of the global economy become increasingly ‘spontaneous’?1 Has power, in terms of global economic governance, become more and more diffused and dispersed in this period? I shall strive to demonstrate in this chapter that the opposite is the case. Never have market economies seen intervention in so manifold ways — and in so standardizing and totalizing ways. Never before have predominant modes of global economic governance taken our notion of what a market economy is so far away from a neo-liberal ideal of ‘spontaneous order’.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Bentham, Jeremy. (1787) Panopticon — or, The inspection house. Containing the idea of a new principle of construction, available at http://sites.scran.ac.uk/ada/documents/castle_style/bridewell/bridewell_jeremy_bentham_panoption_ vol1.htm, accessed on 23 July 2012.

  • Best, Jacqueline. (2003a) ‘From the top-down: The new financial architecture and the re-embedding of global finance’. New Political Economy 8 (3): 363–384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Best, Jacqueline. (2003b) ‘Moralizing finance: The new financial architecture as ethical discourse’. Review of International Political Economy 10 (3): 579–603.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Binkley, Sam and Jorge Capetillo, (eds) (2009) A Foucault for the 21st century: Governmentality, biopolitics and discipline in the new millennium (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing).

    Google Scholar 

  • Breuer, Stefan. (1989) ‘Foucault and Beyond — towards a theory of the disciplinary society’. International Social Science Journal 41 (2): 235–247.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burchell, Graham, Colin Gordon and Peter Miller. (1991) The Foucault effect — studies in governmentality (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dean, Mitchell. (1999) Governmentality. Power and rule in modern society (London: Sage).

    Google Scholar 

  • Dore, Ronald. (2000) ‘Will global capitalism be Anglo-Saxon capitalism?’ New Left Review 6 (Nov–Dec): 101–119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dreyfus, Hubert L. and Paul Rabinow. (1983) Michel Foucault: Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics (New York: Prentice Hall Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Eichengreen, Barry. (1999) Toward a new international financial architecture: A practical post-Asia agenda (Washinton, DC: Institute of International Economics).

    Google Scholar 

  • Emmenegger, Susan. (2006) Strengthening the international financial architecture. In The regulation of international financial markets: Perspectives for reform, edited by R. Grote and T. Marauhn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel. (1991a) Governmentality. In The Foucault effect — studies in governmentality, edited by G. Burchell, C. Gordon and P. Miller (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel. (1991b) [1975] Discipline and punish (London: Penguin Books).

    Google Scholar 

  • FSF. (2007a) The Compendium of Standards 2007 [cited 11 April 2007] Available from http://www.fsforum.org/compendium/about.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • FSF. (2007b) Genesis of the FSF 2007 [cited 11 April 2007]. Available from http://www.fsforum.org/about/genesis_of_the_fsf.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutting, Gary. (1989) Michel Foucault’s archaeology of scientific reason: Science and the history of reason (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gutting, Gary. (1994) The Cambridge companion to Foucault (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hanson, Margaret. (2003) ‘The global promotion of transparency in emerging markets’. Global Governance, 9 (1): 63–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayek, Friedrich von. (1980 [1946]) Individualism: True and false. In Individualism and economic order edited by F. A. Hayek (Chicago: Chicago University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hilbers, Paul. (2001) The IMF/World Bank financial sector assessment program. Economic Perspectives (February) (Washington, DC: The International Monetary Fund).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hindess, Barry. (1998) Neo-liberalism and the national economy. In Governing Australia — Studies in contemporary rationalities of government, edited by Mitchell Dean and Barry Hindess (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • IEO. (2006) Report on the evaluation of the Financial Sector Assessment Program. The Independent Evaluation Office (Washington, DC: The International Monetary Fund).

    Google Scholar 

  • IMF. (1999) Liberalising capital movements: Some analytical issues, economic issues no. 17 (Washington, DC: The International Monetary Fund).

    Google Scholar 

  • IMF. (2000a) Macroprudential indicators of financial system soundness, occasional paper 192 (Washington, DC: The International Monetary Fund).

    Google Scholar 

  • IMF. (2000b) A factsheet: Progress in strengthening the architecture of the international financial system (Washington, DC: The International Monetary Fund).

    Google Scholar 

  • IMF. (2003) The link between adherence to international standards of good practice, foreign exchange spreads, and ratings, IMF Working paper, 03/74 (Washington, DC: The International Monetary Fund).

    Google Scholar 

  • IMF. (2005a) Financial sector assessment: A handbook (Washington, DC: The International Monetary Fund).

    Google Scholar 

  • IMF. (2005b) The standards and codes initiative — Is it effective? And how can it be improved? (Washington, DC: The International Monetary Fund).

    Google Scholar 

  • IMF. (2010a) http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/arcguide.htm.

  • IMF. (2010b) http://www.imf.org/external/standards/.

  • IMF. (2010c) http://www.imf.org/external/np/fsap/fsap.asp.

  • IMF. (2010d) http://www.imf.org/external/np/mcm/financialstability/index.htm.

  • Jackson, Gregory and Richard Deeg. (2006) ‘How many varieties of capitalism? Comparing the comparative institutional analyses of capitalist diversity’. MPIfG Discussion Paper, No. 06/02 (Cologne: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaiser, Karl, Kirton, John and Joseph P. Daniels (eds) (2000) Shaping a new international financial system: Challenges of governance in a globalizing world (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenen, Peter. (2001) The international financial architecture: What’s new and what’s missing? (Washington, DC: Institute for International Economics).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kusch, Martin. (1991) Foucault’s strata and fields: An investigation into archeological and genealogical science studies (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lall, Ranjit. (2011) Reforming global banking standards: Back to the future? In A Governing through standards: Origins, drivers and limitations, edited by S. Ponte, P. Gibbon and J. Vestergaard (London: Palgrave).

    Google Scholar 

  • Larner, Wendy and William Walters (eds) (2004) Global governmentality: Governing international spaces (London: Routledge).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemke, Thomas. (2001) ‘The birth of bio-politics: Michel Foucault’s lecture at the College de France on neo-liberal governmentality’. Economy & Society 30 (2): 190–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marx, Karl. (1906) Capital — A critique of political economy (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr and Company).

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, Peter and Nikolas Rose. (1990) ‘Governing economic life’. Economy & Society 19 (1): 1–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, P. and N. Rose. (2008) Governing the present: Administering economic, social and personal life (London: Polity Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mirowski, Philip. (1989) More heat than light (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mosley, Layna. (2001) ‘Attempting global standards: National governments, international finance, and the IMF’s data regime’. Review of International Political Economy 10 (2): 331–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mosley, Layna. (2003) Global capital and national governments (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Neumann, Iver B. and Ole Jacob Sending. (2009) Governing the global polity: Practice, mentality, rationality (Michigan: University of Michigan Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD. (1999) OECD principles of corporate governance (Paris: The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development).

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Neill, John. (1986) ‘The disciplinary society: From Weber to Foucault’. British Journal of Sociology 37 (1): 42–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palan, Ronen. (2000) New trends in global political economy. In Global Political Economy: Contemporary theories, edited by R. Palan (London: Routledge).

    Google Scholar 

  • Peet, Richard. (2003) Unholy trinity: The IMF, World Bank and WTO (New York: Zed Books).

    Google Scholar 

  • Philp, Mark. (1985) Michel Foucault. In The return of grand theory in the human sciences, edited by Quentin Skinner (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Porter, Tony. (1994) ‘Making things quantitative’. Science in Context, 7 (3): 389–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porter, Tony. (1995) Trust in numbers: The pursuit of objectivity in science and public life (Princeton, New York: Princeton University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Power, Michael. (2005) ‘The invention of operational risk’. Review of International Political Economy, 12 (4): 577–599.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ransom, John S. (1997) Foucault’s discipline: The politics of subjectivity (Durham and London: Duke University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rodrik, Dani. (2002) Getting the institutions right. Working paper. Harvard University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, Nikolas. (1996) Governing ‘advanced’ liberal democracies. In Foucault and political reason — Liberalism, neo-liberalism and rationalities of government, edited by Andrew Barry, Thomas Osborne and Nikolas Rose (London: UCL Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, Nikolas. (1999) The powers of freedom — reframing political thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, Nikolas and Peter Miller. (1992) ‘Political power beyond the state: Problematics of government’. British Journal of Sociology 43 (2): 173–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, Benu. (2003) The road to financial stability: Are key financial standards the answer? (London: Palgrave Macmillan).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, Benu. (2005) Do global standards and codes prevent financial crises? Some proposals on modifying the standards-based approach, Discussion Paper Series, No 177 (Geneva: UNCTAD).

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh, Ajit. (2003) The new international financial architecture, corporate governance and competition in emerging markets: Empirical anomalies and policy issues. In Rethinking development economics, edited by Ha-Joon Chang (London: Anthem Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Soederberg, Suzanne. (2005) The new international financial architecture: An emerging multi-level structure of neoliberal discipline. In Governing financial globalization. International political economy and multi-level governance, edited by Andrew Baker, David Hudson and Richard Woodward (London: Routledge).

    Google Scholar 

  • Tellmann, Ute. (2000) The archaeology of the market, Manucript (Ithaca: Cornell University).

    Google Scholar 

  • Tellmann, Ute. (2003) ‘The truth of the market’. Distinktion 7: 49–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thirkell-White, Ben. (2007) ‘The international financial architecture and the limits of neoliberal hegemony’. New Political Economy 12 (1): 19–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, Edward Palmer. (1967) ‘Time, work, discipline and industrial capitalism’. Past and Present 38: 56–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, Grahame. (2011) ‘The paradoxes of liberalism: Can the international financial architecture be disciplined’, Economy and Society, 40 (3): 477–487.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tietmeyer, Hans. (1999) International corporation and coordination in the area of financial market supervision and surveillance. Report to the G7 Finance Ministers by the President of the Deutsche Bundesbank.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vestergaard, Jakob. (2009a) Discipline in the global economy? International finance and the end of liberalism (London: Routledge).

    Google Scholar 

  • Vestergaard, Jakob. (2009b). ‘“More heat than light”: On the regulation of international finance’, Economic Sociology, 10 (2): 6–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Viswanath, Tara and Daniel Kaufman. (2001) ‘Toward transparency: New approaches and their application to financial markets’ The World Bank Research Observer 16 (1): 41–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vitols, Sigurt. (1996) Modernizing capital: Banks and the regulation of long-term finance in Post-War Germany and the US. Dissertation thesis (Madison: University of Wisconsin).

    Google Scholar 

  • Vitols, Sigurt. (2001) The origins of bank-based and market-based financial systems: Germany, Japan, and the United States, in The origins of nonliberal capitalism: Germany and Japan in comparison, edited by W. Streeck and K. Yamamura (Itacha: Cornell University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, Max. (1947) The theory of social and economic organization (New York: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, Max. (1950) General economic history (Glencoe: The Free Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank. (1999) Corporate governance: An issue of global concern (Washington, DC: The World Bank).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 2012 Jakob Vestergaard

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Vestergaard, J. (2012). Disciplining the International Political Economy through Finance. In: Guzzini, S., Neumann, I.B. (eds) The Diffusion of Power in Global Governance. Palgrave Studies in International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137283559_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics