Global Capitalism and the Neoliberal Privatization of Energy Reserves: A Mexico Case Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 103-115
Author(s):  
Marcelo del Castillo-Mussot ◽  
Jorge A. Montemayor-Aldrete ◽  
Jeb Sprague-Silgado ◽  
Alfredo de la Lama Garcia

Abstract In 2013 state officials operating through the three federal government branches of Mexico mutilated the country’s constitution, privatizing upwards of seventy-five percent of the country’s hydrocarbon reserves. This article suggests that this neoliberal strategy, carried out by transnationally oriented elites operating through state apparatuses in Mexico (and promoted by officials in Washington and within the International Financial Institutions), is meant to benefit transnational capital. Such drastic change to Mexico’s legal order, we argue, in fact violated the country’s constitution and symbolized a break with the country’s earlier model of development. The federal government’s anti-constitutional behavior, specifically its violation of Article 136 of the constitution, provides a legal basis for dismissing top officials from their posts and moving toward a constitutional assembly.

2008 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 91-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda M. Fulmer ◽  
Angelina Snodgrass Godoy ◽  
Philip Neff

AbstractUsing a case study of a controversial mine in an indigenous area of Guatemala, this article explores the transnational dynamics of development and regulation of large-scale extractive industry projects in the developing world. It examines the roles played in the Marlin mine dispute by national law, international law, international financial institutions, and corporate social responsibility. It concludes that these legal regimes have a role in protecting human rights but have not addressed the fundamental questions of democratic governance raised by this case.


2021 ◽  
Vol 915 (1) ◽  
pp. 012022
Author(s):  
O V Mikichurova ◽  
I V Vlialko

Abstract The article is devoted to the study of the legal basis for the development of the circular economy, clarifying the essence of the concept of circular law, and analysis of international and national legal acts in this area. Research has shown humanity’s awareness of modern global threats and its gradual movement from the traditional to circular economic model. The legal basis for such a transition lies in circular law, which is a set of legal norms that define and regulate social relations in the field of circular economy. The article explores legal acts in the field of circular economy at the universal, regional and national levels across the globe. The main purpose of the article is to analyze the legal basis for the development of the circular economy. International law is currently being enriched with a number of new legal acts devoted to this subject matter. This may indicate the emergence of a new branch of international law – a circular law. An increased attention of international financial institutions towards financing of circular projects stipulates the further development and spread of the circular concept.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 95-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Park

Environmental organizations, characterized here as transnational advocacy networks, use various strategies to “green” international financial institutions (IFIs). This article goes beyond analyzing network strategies to examine how transnational advocacy networks reconstitute the identity of IFIs. This, it is argued, results from processes of socialization: social influence, persuasion and coercion by lobbying. A case study of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), as a member of the World Bank Group, is used to analyze how an IFI internalized sustainable development norms. The IFC finances private enterprise in developing countries by providing venture capital for private projects. Transnational advocacy networks socialized the IFC through influencing its projects, policies and institutions via direct and indirect interactions to the point where the organization now sees itself as a sustainable development financier. This article applies constructivist insights to the greening process in order to demonstrate how socialization can reshape an IFI's identity.


Author(s):  
John Marangos

There is a widespread perception around the world that the Washington Consensus is dead. In contrast to the world tide prior to the global financial crisis of 2008, this paper aims to demonstrate that the conditionalities inspired by the Washington Consensus and imposed by the international financial institutions are still pertinent. Using as a case study the Greek financial crisis of 2010–2014, it is verified that the Troika’s austerity imposed conditionalities that neatly fit within the Washington Consensus framework. However, consistent with the neoclassical framework, the Washington Consensus recommends the reduction in taxes, whereas the Troika’s austerity conditionalities entail an increase in taxes. It appears that a striking paradox is present, in that the neoclassical tax conditionality policy is sacrificed in the name of increased tax revenue. This allegedly perplexing tax policy and blatant conflict, which appears to controvert the very essence of the neoclassical ideological framework of the Washington Consensus and the IMF, will be further explored.


Author(s):  
Ilya Lifshits

The Member States of the European Union have transferred to it the substantial scope of the domestic competence in financial sphere. So, the EU exclusive competence covers the monetary policy of the Member States whose currency is the euro. Besides that, the legal regulation of the activities in the banking, insurance and stock markets are largely performed from the EU level. The European Union is not a member of many international financial institutions that determine global financial legal order in the modern world. Moreover, until now there is no established procedure for EU Member States coordination in such institutions. Based on systemic and comparative legal methods, the article explores peculiarities of realization of the EU external competence. The author concludes that development of financial integration in the European Union will inevitably lead to development of the legislation that would clearly regulate the procedure of EU Member States coordination in the international financial institutions. It would further limit legal capacity of the Member States and would result in so called “Europeanization” of the international financial legal order. Brexit would enhance this process.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (S29) ◽  
pp. 69-91
Author(s):  
Mehdi Labzaé ◽  
Sabine Planel

AbstractThis article looks at how rural inhabitants navigated state power under a regime led by a former socialist party that negotiated its conversion to a market economy while keeping tight control on the whole society. In that regard, it addresses adjustment in a very specific context, by analysing a distinctive chronology, raising the ruling party's ability to negotiate with the international financial institutions, and considering popular reactions from a rural point of view. The regime led by the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) managed to delay measures of structural adjustment during the 1990s and 2000s while deepening structures of state control it partly inherited from the former military junta. Brutal structural adjustment plans were refused, while international financial institutions were kept away from the Ethiopian government's policy mix, by way of elaborate ideological and institutional arrangements. The EPRDF coined its own version of the “developmental state” and renewed state control of the economy while deepening its articulation to global markets. Under the EPRDF, all sectors of society and especially peasantries were closely monitored and mobilized in the name of development. But although the open expression of dissent remained rare, peasants resorted to many strategies to cope with political control and to some extent divert it. By taking agricultural policies as a case study, the article describes peasant practices and questions differences between resistance, false compliance, and diversion, underlining how blurred such labels can actually be.


Author(s):  
David M. Webber

The first of these case study chapters in chapter 5 draws parallels between the economic framework designed by Treasury officials at home and ‘the new international economic architecture’ that Gordon Brown was keen to pursue abroad. This would provide the basis for a new approach to debt relief to reform the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative. The new Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative would be conditional upon recipient countries meeting their obligations towards this new economic architecture, designed by Brown and based upon the principles of the ‘post-Washington Consensus’. This approach however, ran counter to many within civil society who viewed the issue of debt relief in ‘moral’ rather than simply ‘economic’ terms. In meeting with these different faith groups, NGOs and other debt activists, Brown certainly appeared sympathetic to such claims but the biblical language of forgiveness, justice and redemption that he used in speaking to these audiences differed from when he spoke in altogether more punitive terms to the international financial institutions. Here Brown spoke of the need for greater stability, demanded that indebted countries recognise their financial obligations, and urged greater surveillance by the International Monetary Fund of these countries national accounts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-197
Author(s):  
Colin Powers

Abstract This article explores the development strategies articulated and implemented in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan during the tenure of King Abdullah ii. It begins by establishing the consistency with which national planners have adopted ideas, recommendations, and ideological scripts initially authored by the international financial institutions (ifis). Having documented the endurance of Jordan’s “policy convergence”, it explains this outcome as a dialectical function of foreign interference and local agency. Demonstrating how the lines between the national, international, and transnational blur in constituting the contemporary Jordanian political economy, this case study in actually existing neoliberalism will provide a unique look at the actors, interests, ideas and processes at the heart of the country’s enduring underdevelopment.


Author(s):  
Serhii Voitko ◽  
◽  
Yuliia Borodinova ◽  

The article examines the interaction of the national economy of Ukraine with international credit and financial organizations, evaluates the positive and negative consequences and identifies possible areas for further cooperation. The role of international credit and financial organizations in the development of the global economy is analyzed. Today, international financial institutions have taken a leading place among institutions that provide financial support and contribute to the implementation of necessary reforms aimed at developing enterprises in various sectors of the economy and strengthening the country's financial sector as a whole. The importance of cooperation between Ukraine and international financial institutions for the development of the country's economy has been determined. The problems and directions of development of cooperation with leading credit and financial organizations in modern conditions are identified. Despite the presence of certain shortcomings, cooperation between Ukraine and international credit and financial organizations will continue in the future.


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