Thomas Marois

Lucia Pradella

The global economic crisis has exposed the limits of neoliberalism and intensified social polarization. Amid increasing social resistance and opposition, however, neoliberalism prevails globally. Within political economic debates, however, radical alternatives are rarely debated or are reduced to new Keynesian and new developmental agendas, which fail to address existing class divisions and imperialist relations of domination. This unique collection of essays polarizes the debate between radical and reformist alternatives by exploring head-on the antagonistic structure of capitalist development in Latin America, Southern Asia, Europe, the US and the Middle East. The contributors ground the question of alternatives in an international, non-Eurocentric and avowedly Marxian analysis of the capitalist system and its crises. The collection's approach is also distinctive in arguing that social and labour movements are core determinants of development outcomes and progressive change. This new generation of scholars has written accessible yet theoretically informed and empirically rich chapters elaborating radically different worldwide strategies for moving beyond neoliberalism, and beyond capitalism. The intent is to provoke critical reflection and positive action towards substantive change.

Alternatives to Neoliberalism and the Crisis

Polarizing Development

Public banks are dynamic, contested institutions with the potential to decarbonize the environment, definancialise the economy, and democratise global development.

Decarbonisation, Definancialisation and Democratisation

Public Banks

Public banks are banks located within the public sphere of a state. They are pervasive, with more than 900 institutions worldwide, and powerful, with tens of trillions in assets. Public banks are neither essentially good nor bad. Rather, they are dynamic institutions, made and remade by contentious social forces. As the first single-authored book on public banks, this timely intervention examines how these institutions can confront the crisis of climate finance and catalyse a green and just transition. The author explores six case studies across the globe, demonstrating that public banks have acquired the representative structures, financial capacity, institutional knowledge, collaborative networks, and geographical reach to tackle decarbonisation, definancialisation, and democratisation. These institutions are not without contradictions, torn as they are between contending public and private interests in class-divided society. Ultimately, social forces and struggles shape how and if public banks serve the public good.

Galip Yalman

Ali R?za Güngen

This volume provides a comprehensive study of Turkey’s financial transformation into one of the most dynamic, if not trouble-free, emerging capitalisms. While this financial evolution has underwritten Turkey’s dramatic economic growth, it has done so without ameliorating the persistently exploitative and unequal social structures that characterize neoliberalism today. This edited volume, written by an interdisciplinary range of political economists, critically examines Turkey’s financial transformation, contributing to debates on the nature of peripheral financialization. Eschewing economistic interpretations, The Political Economy of Financial Transformation in Turkey underscores both the quantitative significance of exponential growth in financial flows and investments, and the qualitative importance of the state’s institutional restructuring around financial imperatives. The book presents today’s reality as historically rooted. By understanding the choices made under the new Republic (from 1923 onwards), one can better locate the changes launched as a newly liberalizing society (since 1980). Likewise, the decisions made in response to Turkey’s 2001 financial crisis spurred a tectonic break in state–market–society financial relations. The waves of change have reached far and wide: from corporate strategies of accumulation and growth to small- and medium-sized enterprises’ strategies of financial survival; from how finance has penetrated the provisioning of housing to how households have become financialized. Put together, one grasps the complexity and historicity of the power of contemporary finance. One also sees that the changes made have not been class-neutral, but have entailed elevating the interests of major capital groups, particularly financial capital, above the interests of the poor and workers in Turkey. Nor are these changes constrained to its national borders, as what transpires domestically contributes to the making of a financialized world market. Through this ‘Made in Turkey’ approach the contributions in this volume thus challenge dominant understandings of financialization, which are derived from the advanced capitalisms, by sharing the specificity of emerging capitalisms such as Turkey.

The Political Economy of Financial Transformation in Turkey

''Thomas Marois'' book, States, Banks and Crisis, is highly attractive to development scholars because of the combinations of topics it discusses, the countries analyzed, and its characterization of financial capital as dominant. In the last century the states of Mexico and Turkey promoted robust economic growth guided by powerful public banking organizations. The book captures how this came to a halt since the 1980s through the privatizing of economic activity, especially banking activities in ways that induced steep banking crises that halted economic development. Marois discusses the theory and history of Mexico and Turkey in depth offering an excellent analysis of their neoliberal experiences while proposing new alternatives to reshape the linkages between the financial sector and economic growth.'' Noemí Levy, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City ''This book attempts to provide a critique of neoclassical and liberal political economists as well as the much-hyped and influential "varieties of capitalism" approach, a variant of institutionalist political economy, by claiming that they are dismissive of "the structural power of financial capital". In this regard, it makes an important contribution to the critical political economy tradition with its detailed analysis of the relations between the state, finance capital and labour in the context of two "emerging capitalisms", Mexico and Turkey. Thereby, it enhances our understanding of how the financial crises function as driving forces of neoliberal transformation by initiating new forms of state specific to peripheral capitalism.'' Galip Yalman, Middle East Technical University, Turkey ''As analysts fixated on the financial crisis convulsing the core capitalist countries, the so-called "emerging markets" also saw stunning tranformations in the world of finance capitalism. This remarkable study by Tom Marois carefully dissects the evolution of the banking industry in two of the most significant state-led capitalisms, Turkey and Mexico, as they formed finance-led neoliberal economic policies. The consequences for their development strategies makes for sober reading. This is a unique and crucial study for students of the comparative political economy of contemporary capitalism.'' Greg Albo, York University, Canada ''Financialization is as financialization does. It is a mix of the universal characteristics of finance within capitalism, its contemporary powerful hold over, even defining feature of, the neoliberal age, and the myriad of specific global markets and countries into which it has penetrated. In a stunning work of comparative political economy, Marois brilliantly weaves together these aspects of finance drawing on both innovative theoretical insights and primary case study evidence from Turkey and Mexico to furnish what will become a classic and original contribution to the understanding of financialization in the developing world, highlighting both the role of the state in the era of putatively free markets and the possibility, indeed, necessity of alternatives.'' Ben Fine, University of London, UK ''Marois has provided us with a fascinating, rigorous and important study of the rise and persistence of finance capitalism in Mexico and Turkey. Drawing on an innovative historical materialist lens, Marois'' analysis reveals the struggles, contradictions, and continued significance of the banking sector in defining and redefining neoliberal-led development in these so-called "emerging markets". This is a very welcome addition to critical understandings of the role of finance and states in the global South.'' Susanne Soederberg, Queen''s University, Canada Thomas Marois'' groundbreaking interpretation of banking and development in Mexico and Turkey builds on a Marxian-inspired framework premised on understanding states and banks as social relationships alongside crisis and labor as vital to finance today. The book''s rich historical and empirical content reveals definite institutionalized relationships of power that mainstream political economists often miss. While leading to a timely analysis of the impact of the Great Recession on Mexico and Turkey, the major contribution of States, Banks and Crisis in its account of emerging finance capitalism. This is defined as the current phase of accumulation wherein the interests of financial capital are fused in the state apparatus as the institutionalized priorities and overarching social logic guiding the actions of state managers and government elites, often to the detriment of labor. This interdisciplinary and accessible study on banking and development will prove to be an important resource for upper-level undergraduates, graduates, and scholars in economics, development studies, political science, political economy, development finance, sociology, international relations and international political economy.

Thomas Marois

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