Financial Openness Democracy And Redistributive Policy

What explains the spread of both democracy and financial openness at this time in history, given the constraining impact of financial market integration on national policy autonomy? International policy coordination is part of the answer, but not all. Also important is the presence of cost-effective redistributive schemes that provide insurance against the risk of financial instability.

What explains the spread ...

The Fund has recognized in recent years that one cannot separate issues of economic growth and stability on one hand and equality on the other. Indeed, there is a strong case for considering inequality and an inability to sustain economic growth as two sides of the same coin. Central to the Fund’s mandate is providing advice that will enable members’ economies to grow on a sustained basis. But the Fund has rightly been cautious about recommending the use of redistributive policies given that such policies may themselves undercut economic efficiency and the prospects for sustained growth (the so-called “leaky bucket” hypothesis written about by the famous Yale economist Arthur Okun in the 1970s). This SDN follows up the previous SDN on inequality and growth by focusing on the role of redistribution. It finds that, from the perspective of the best available macroeconomic data, there is not a lot of evidence that redistribution has in fact undercut economic growth (except in extreme cases). One should be careful not to assume therefore—as Okun and others have—that there is a big tradeoff between redistribution and growth. The best available macroeconomic data do not support such a conclusion.

Deftly navigating the tensions among globalization, national sovereignty, and democracy, Straight Talk on Trade presents an indispensable commentary on today's world economy and its dilemmas, and offers a visionary framework at a critical time when it is most needed.

Li and Reuveny use an interdisciplinary social-scientific approach to investigate today's key political, economic, and environmental issues.

Since the 1970s, developing countries have experienced two notable trends: the rise of new democratic regimes and the rush to free trade. These joint trends have led some to argue that democracy and free-trade go hand in hand in the developing world, each supporting the other. Mukherjee argues that trade politics in developing countries resists such easy categorization. Instead, his book offers an innovative theoretical framework identifying the specific economic conditions and democratic institutions that influence trade policy in developing countries. He focuses particularly on the changing domestic political interactions among parties, party leaders, and labor and capital in developing nations. He draws upon large time-series datasets as well as cross-national survey data analysis to test hypotheses. Then, looking more closely at Brazil, India, Indonesia, and South Africa, he also provides comparative case-study evidence, such as within-country data on trade barriers and campaign contributions. The most comprehensive treatment of the subject to date, "Democracy and Trade Policy in Developing Countries" will be essential reading for scholars and policymakers alike, not only for the understanding it provides for trading strategies now, but for what it reveals about the prospects for international economic cooperation in the future.

Provides an innovative theory of regime transitions and outcomes, and tests it using extensive evidence between 1800 and today.

Presents the issues of democratic trends. This title addresses worldwide changes and developments of democratization from historical and contemporary perspectives. It also presents discourses on the diffusion of democracy, paths of democratic transitions, worldwide trends towards democratization, as well as discussion about democracy in retreat.