Leonard Seabrooke

Global norms form the core infrastructure of economic and political globalization. To be influential, these norms need to be codified into policy scripts that spell out how they are to be applied in practice. This process of developing scripts is a key job of international organizations, which act as venues where states can collectively make major decisions. When forging policy prescriptions, these organizations draw on scientific knowledge but are also highly attune to political pressures. Making Global Norms provides a theoretical account and advanced methodological toolkit to study how variation in the intensity of scientific consensus and political contestation produces policy scripts that modify global norms. This book shows that the policymakers involved in scriptwriting processes within international organizations wear two hats: they are both political representatives of the states that appoint them and experts in their own right with worldviews that correspond to their expertise. They have to negotiate with each other, as well as with their organization's technocratic staff, to shape the ultimate content of global policy scripts. The implication of the authors' findings is that diversity within IOs matters: changes in the kinds of expertise that are present in deliberations can yield significant differences in how norms are modified. Their empirical focus is on the International Monetary Fund's scripts for capital controls, sovereign debt management, and taxation. Drawing on a novel mixed-method methodological approach, Making Global Norms opens the black box on how some of the most important norms underpinning globalization were made. This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International] licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Global norms form the core infrastructure of economic and political globalization. To be influential, these norms need to be codified into policy scripts that spell out how they are to be applied in practice. This process of developing scripts is a key job of international organizations, which act as venues where states can collectively make major decisions. When forging policy prescriptions, these organizations draw on scientific knowledge but are also highly attune to political pressures. Making Global Norms provides a theoretical account and advanced methodological toolkit to study how variation in the intensity of scientific consensus and political contestation produces policy scripts that modify global norms. This book shows that the policymakers involved in scriptwriting processes within international organizations wear two hats: they are both political representatives of the states that appoint them and experts in their own right with worldviews that correspond to their expertise. They have to negotiate with each other, as well as with their organization's technocratic staff, to shape the ultimate content of global policy scripts. The implication of the authors' findings is that diversity within IOs matters: changes in the kinds of expertise that are present in deliberations can yield significant differences in how norms are modified. Their empirical focus is on the International Monetary Fund's scripts for capital controls, sovereign debt management, and taxation. Drawing on a novel mixed-method methodological approach, Making Global Norms opens the black box on how some of the most important norms underpinning globalization were made. This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International] licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

This book demonstrates how housing systems are built from political struggles over the distribution of welfare and wealth. The contributors analyze varieties of residential capitalism through a range of international case studies, as well as investigating the links between housing finance and the current international financial crisis.

This book demonstrates how housing systems are built from political struggles over the distribution of welfare and wealth. The contributors analyze varieties of residential capitalism through a range of international case studies, as well as investigating the links between housing finance and the current international financial crisis.

A state's financial power is built on the effect its credit, property, and tax policies have on ordinary people: this is the key message of Leonard Seabrooke's comparative historical investigation, which turns the spotlight away from elite financial actors and toward institutions that matter for the majority of citizens. Seabrooke suggests that everyday contests between social groups and the state over how the economy should work determine the legitimacy of a state's financial and fiscal system. Ideally, he believes, such contests compel a state to intervene on behalf of people below the median income level, leading the state to broaden and deepen its domestic pool of capital while increasing its influence on international finance. But to do so, Seabrooke asserts, a state must first challenge powerful interests that benefit from the concentration of financial wealth. Seabrooke's novel constructivist approach is informed by economic sociology and the work of Max Weber. This book demonstrates how domestic legitimacy influences the character of international financial orders. It will interest all readers concerned with how best to transform state intervention in the economy for the good of the majority.