Economic Crises And Policy Regimes

In this innovative book, Hideko Magara brings together an expert team to explore both the possibilities and difficulties of transitioning from a neoliberal policy regime to an alternative regime through drastic policy innovations. The authors argue tha

Since the global financial crisis of 2008, advanced economies have been making various efforts to overcome the economic impasse. While the contrast between the countries that have escaped from the crisis relatively quickly and those still suffering from serious problems is becoming clearer, a new economic crisis stemming from newly emerging economies has again impacted advanced economies. In retrospect, both leftist and rightist governments in advanced economies pursued expansive macroeconomic and welfare policies from the post-WWII period to the oil shocks of the 1970s. While we recognise that the particular policy regime in this ‘Golden Decades’ during which the left and the right implemented similar policies cross-nationally, were characterised by outstanding economic growth in each country, the specific growth patterns varied across countries. Different social coalitions underpinned different growth models. This book is premised on tentative conclusions that Magara and her research collaborators have reached as a result of three years of study related to our previous project on economic crises and policy regimes. Recognising the need to analyse fluid and unstable situations, we have set up a new research design in which we emphasise political variables—whether political leaders and citizens can overcome the various weaknesses inherent in democracy and escape from an economic crisis by establishing an effective social coalition. A new policy regime can be stable only if it is supported by a sufficiently large coalition of social groups whose most important policy demands are satisfied within the new policy regime.

Why do some authoritarian regimes topple during financial crises, while others steer through financial crises relatively unscathed? In this book, Thomas B. Pepinsky uses the experiences of Indonesia and Malaysia and the analytical tools of open economy macroeconomics to answer this question. Focusing on the economic interests of authoritarian regimes' supporters, Pepinsky shows that differences in cross-border asset specificity produce dramatically different outcomes in regimes facing financial crises. When asset specificity divides supporters, as in Indonesia, they desire mutually incompatible adjustment policies, yielding incoherent adjustment policy followed by regime collapse. When coalitions are not divided by asset specificity, as in Malaysia, regimes adopt radical adjustment measures that enable them to survive financial crises. Combining rich qualitative evidence from Southeast Asia with cross-national time-series data and comparative case studies of Latin American autocracies, Pepinsky reveals the power of coalitions and capital mobility to explain how financial crises produce regime change.

Macroeconomic Policy Regimes in Western Industrial Countries explains how certain countries have created a more liberal and market-based type of capitalism. The emphasis throughout is on how understanding macroeconomic policies, and the institutional framework in which they operate, is vital to understanding the long-run dynamics of a capitalist economy

This book analyses how the economic crisis in the 1970s led to the erosion of the regulated type of capitalism that came to be in place after World War II, and paved the way to a Neoliberal Globalisation. Deep structural institutional changes especially in the field of financial markets, labour markets and the international economy became the basis for a liberal type of capitalism which included financial markets in a dominant role. The new neoliberal model fundamentally changed the conditions for all macroeconomic policies. In this book, these macroeconomic policy regimes are discussed on a theoretical level. Macroeconomic Policy Regimes in Western Industrial Countries explains how certain countries have created a more liberal and market-based type of capitalism. The emphasis throughout is on how understanding macroeconomic policies, and the institutional framework in which they operate, is vital to understanding the long-run dynamics of a capitalist economy. The policy regimes that are examined consist of changes in the financial system, monetary policy, fiscal policy, wage policy, and changes in distribution and foreign economic policy. The argument emerges that this deregulated type of capitalism is unacceptably unstable and is only preferable to a minority. Moving on from the finance-driven development of recent decades, the authors take a look at the need for fundamental reforms, including institutional reforms in the areas of national and international financial and labour markets. Case studies from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan dating from the 1970s up to today provide the reader with clear examples and analysis of the development in question. This book will be of interest to postgraduates and researchers of economics and political science.

Contents: (1) The Issue and Role of Congress; (2) Two Indicators of the Severity of the Crisis: Growth and Trade; (3) Political and Foreign Policy Effects of the Crisis: (a) Effects on Political Leadership; Regimes; Perceived Countries of Influence; and Stability, Violence, and Terrorism: Political Leadership; Perceived Countries of Influence; Stability, Violence, and Terrorism; (b) Effects on Economic Philosophies, State Capitalism, and Protectionism: Economic Philosophies: State Capitalism; Trade Protectionism; (c) Effects on U.S. Leadership and Attitudes Toward the U.S.; (d) Effects on Supranational Financial and Economic Org.; (e) Effects on Poverty: (f) Budgetary Effects on Resources for Aid, Diplomacy, and Defense. Charts and tables.

ÔThis outstanding book examines whether and how the finance-led growth model can be transformed. The authorsÕ insightful analyses make significant contributions to our understanding of the global economic crisis since 2008 and the search for possible new paths beyond the crisis.Õ Ð Stein Kuhnle, University of Bergen, Norway and Hertie School of Governance, Germany ÔThis book sheds a powerful light on the current uncertainty of the world economy. Indispensable reading for understanding the roots of the crisis and the possible ways out.Õ Ð Carlota Perez, Technological University of Tallinn, Estonia and London School of Economics, UK This timely and far-reaching book addresses the long-term impact of the recent global economic crisis. New light is shed on the crisis and its historical roots, and resolutions for a more robust, resilient future socio-economic model are prescribed. Leading experts across a range of field including macroeconomics, politics, economic history, social policy, linguistics and global economic relations address key issues emerging from the crisis. They consider whether a new era in interactions between state, society and markets is actually dawning, and whether the finance-led economic growth model will be transformed into a new and more stable model. The role of the crisis in economy, polity and society, in shaking up existing institutional regimes and in paving the way for new ones is also discussed. Post-crisis combinations of state-society-economy relations are identified, and the question of whether the crisis has led to the reconsideration of economic relations and their institutional embeddedness is explored. This challenging book will provide a thought provoking read for academics, students and researchers focusing on economics, political science and sociology. Policymakers in the fields of economic, industrial and social policy will also find this book to be an informative point of reference.

The acute economic pressures of the 1980s have forced virtually all of Latin America and Africa and some countries in Asia into painful austerity programs and difficult economic reforms. Scholars have intensively analyzed the economics of this situation, but they have given much less attention to the political forces involved. In this volume a number of eminent contributors analyze the politics of adjustment in thirteen countries and nineteen governments, drawing comparisons not only across the full set of cases but also within clusters selected to clarify specific issues. Why do some governments respond promptly to signs of economic trouble, while others muddle indecisively for years? Why do some confine their response to temporary macroeconomic measures, while others adopt broader, even sweeping, programs of reform? What leads some countries to experiment with heterodox approaches, while most, however reluctantly, pursue orthodox courses? Why, confronted with intense political protest, have some governments persisted while others have altered or abandoned course? The answers to these questions are political, not economic, and they are examined here by Thomas M. Callaghy, Stephan Haggard, Miles Kahler, Robert R. Kauman, Joan M. Nelson, and Barbara Stallings.