The Political Economy of Financial Reform in the US and the UK

1996 ◽  
pp. 117-154
Author(s):  
Gillian Garcia
Author(s):  
Jeremy Green

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the close postwar association between the United Kingdom and the United States, which is known by a single mnemonic: the “Special Relationship.” It refers to an unusually close and cooperative partnership between two independent states, encompassing diplomatic, military-strategic, political, economic, and cultural spheres. For the UK, the Special Relationship has offered a means to preserve great-power status even though its capacity for unilateral action in pursuit of foreign policy objectives is greatly diminished. For the US, the UK's possession of nuclear weapons, access to political and military intelligence, and position on the United Nations Security Council are valuable appendages. Despite the occasional spat and periods of cooling, diplomatic relations between the two states have remained extraordinarily close. But for all that the concept of the Special Relationship has illuminated, it has also obscured much—for example, the political economy of Anglo-America, buried beneath more fashionable scholarly preoccupations with diplomacy, grand strategy, and the cultural and sentimental linkages between the two states. Thus, this book examines the political economy of the relationship between the UK and the US.


Author(s):  
Thomas Kalinowski

This chapter on US finance-led capitalism is the first of the three chapters to investigate the domestic origins of international economic cooperation and conflicts. First it builds on the trilemma triangle introduced in Chapter 2 and explains the US position. The chapter then investigates the historical origin of the US finance-led model of capitalism. It then turns to investigating the economic foundation of this model, before turning to the political economy of the US-specific neoliberal class compromise. As we shall see, the UK is also mentioned frequently as another finance-led country that has similar preferences to the US, and, with the British exit from the EU, the UK will probably align even more closely with the US.


2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 943-955 ◽  
Author(s):  
IAN LEIGH

AbstractThis article argues that there is a need to modernise the law governing accountability of the UK security and intelligence agencies following changes in their work in the last decade. Since 9/11 the agencies have come increasingly into the spotlight, especially because of the adoption of controversial counter-terrorism policies by the government (in particular forms of executive detention) and by its international partners, notably the US. The article discusses the options for reform in three specific areas: the use in legal proceedings of evidence obtained by interception of communications; with regard to the increased importance and scle of collaboration with overseas agencies; and to safeguard the political independence of the agencies in the light of their substantially higher public profile. In each it is argued that protection of human rights and the need for public accountability requires a new balance to be struck with the imperatives of national security.


2019 ◽  
pp. 184-205
Author(s):  
Catherine Lutz

This chapter explores the representational power of maps and the violence inherent in removing volume with two-dimensional ‘objectivity’. The focus is on maps, norms and militarist institutions in Guam, foregrounding underexplored aesthetic dimensions in reports on the environmental impact of the US presence. The impact of overseas US bases is striking, a global archipelago of military infrastructure that impacts on ‘strategic and disposable’ island populations. This chapter recognizes the layers of security available even in ‘transparent’ maps.


Author(s):  
Mark Thatcher ◽  
Tim Vlandas

Political economy debates have focused on the internationalization of private capital. But foreign states increasingly enter domestic markets as financial investors. How do policy makers in recipient countries react? Do they treat purchases as a threat and impose restrictions or see them as beneficial and welcome them? What are the wider implications for debates about state capacities to govern domestic economies in the face of internationalization of financial markets? In response, the book develops the concept of ‘internationalized statism’—governments welcoming and using foreign state investments to govern their domestic economies—and applies it to the most prominent overseas state investors: Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). Many SWFs are from Asia and the Middle East and their number and size have greatly expanded, reaching $9 trillion by 2020. The book examines policies towards non-Western SWFs buying company shares in four countries: the US, the UK, France, and Germany. Although the US has imposed significant legal restrictions, the others have pursued internationalized statism in ways that are surprising given both popular and political economy classifications. The book argues that the policy patterns found are related to domestic politics, notably the preferences and capacities of the political executive and legislature, rather than solely economic needs or national security risks. The phenomenon of internationalized statism underlines that overseas state investment provides policy makers in recipient states with new allies and resources. The study of SWFs shows how and why internationalization and liberalization of financial markets offer national policy makers opportunities to govern their domestic economies.


2021 ◽  
pp. 172-190
Author(s):  
Francis Teal

While all the evidence we have points to the rising living standards for most of the very poorest, the wages of unskilled labour in poor countries remain a fraction of those in rich countries. Those potential workers are seen as a threat to the living standards of the unskilled in rich countries and the political impetus to limit their access to those labour markets has been, and remains, one of the most potent issue in the politics of rich countries. This aversion to immigration as a threat to the wages of the unskilled often transmutes into a hostility to trade, as goods, which use a lot of unskilled labour, can be imported more cheaply. Both immigration and trade are seen as a threat to the unskilled. Two dimensions of this threat are examined in this chapter—the impact of Chinese exports on wages in the US and the impact of immigration on the UK economy.


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