Political Economy of Globalization: Financialization & Crises

This edited book is a collection of selected papers, presented at the International Conference of Political Economy (ICOPEC 2016). The deliberate employment of the term “political economy” in the title “International Conference of Political Economy” implies the fact that economics is perceived as an integral part of social phenomena in the International Conference of Political Economy (ICOPEC). Accordingly, even if economic institutions and relations form the foundations of society in the contemporary world, economic development is dependent on social power and dynamics, while economic policies, per se, are shaped by not only technical processes but also diverse interests and choices. Within this context, politics is involved in every encounter between different economic classes, social groups and genders being shaped by the visions of a better life as the subject matter of philosophy, ethics and religion and at times it finds its best expression in art. Law, on the other hand, is the embodiment of all social relations which are, in their essence, political. Thus, this conference does not reduce society to market relations only, despite positioning the economy in the heart of social relations. Above all, it considers the society as a political entity. Indeed, everything constitutes the subject matter of politics. The arguments in favour of purifying market relations from the influence of politics and the discourse that they take place on their own right serve to disguise the conflicts of interest and power asymmetries inherent therein. This conference regards man as homo politicus, as Aristoteles put it, rather than homo economicus. In 2016, ICOPEC conferences were turned into a conference series with its 7th conference and the main theme of the 7th conference was determined as “State, Economic Policy, Taxation and Development". IJOPEC Publication has undertaken to publish selected papers, presented at this conference in English and Turkish, in five different edited books. In the 90s the phenomena of globalization managed to dominate political, popular, and academic debates. While reading a newspaper or a book, watching television, surfing the Internet, or participating in a demonstration we come across the links of globalization in our everyday lives. Globalization as a wide term is variously blamed or credited with a huge range of negative effects, e. g. it is often related to social problems ranging from famine to floods, from pollution to poverty, and from rural depopulation to urban overcrowding. On the contrary, globalization can be also considered as the source of success in development, for instance decrease in the poverty levels, economic prosperity and growth, better services, and enhanced awareness of human rights. Nevertheless, some sceptics of the benefits from globalization have also described the potential ways in transforming political, economic, and social relations within and between countries. This transformation may lead to the benefit of human welfare worldwide. T İsmail Şiriner, Bryan Christiansen, Julia Dobreva (Introduction: Political Economy of Globalization: Financialization & Crises) 10 Since the 80s, we can observe a significant increase in the role of the financial sector. This progress is often referred to as financialization. Financialization has many features and affects numerous different economic entities (Epstein 2015; Stockhammer 2013). One key component is the magnificent growth of the financial sector. Greenwood & Scharfstein (2013) point out a massive rise of the financial service sector in the USA during the last 30 years. The growth can be proved either by the financial sector’s share in GDP, the quantity of financial assets, or by employment and average wages in the financial sector. But this growth is not related to the USA; although to a softer scope, similar processes can also be observed in other OECD countries (Philippon & Reshel 2013). The financial rise has its base in the deregulation and liberalization of the financial (and economic) system. From this point of view, financialization is the cause rather than the effect. This is the major difference compared to the other approaches. Financialization can affect the macro-economy through four main channels. These are income distribution, investment in capital stock, household debt, and net exports and current account balances. As a correction, it is discussed that economic structures governed by financialization should be addressed on four dimensions: a) re-regulation and reduction of the financial sector, b) redistribution of income from top to bottom and from capital to labour, c) re-orientation of macroeconomic policies to stabilize domestic demand at non-inflationary full employment levels, and eventually d) re-creation of international monetary and economic policy coordination.