Capital controls in China, Brazil and India : towards the end of the free movement of capital as a global norm?

This dissertation examines whether China, Brazil and India will form a challenge to the Western-made neoliberal norm of the free movement of capital across borders. From a neo-Gramscian perspective, it is argued that capital account liberalization has been a crucial element of the neoliberal project. By allowing the transnationalization of productive and financial capital, it has transformed the power relations between labour and capital to the advantage of the latter. As such, a study on the policies and perspectives of China, Brazil and India with regard to capital account policies, can shed light on the broader debate whether these rising powers will challenge the US-led, Western-made neoliberal world order. An in-depth analysis of these countries’ respective capital control policies, in connection with their domestic constellation of social forces and prevailing accumulation regime, leads to the following conclusions. First, these countries do not seem to form a challenge to the norm of the free flow of capital. All three the countries have liberalized to a considerable extent, they all see the full free movement of capital as a final objective, and the dominant social forces in their social formation are not in favour of a substantial closure of the capital account. Second, however, these countries are more pragmatic and flexible with regard to cross-border capital flows, and do not want to give up on their autonomy to hold on to or reintroduce capital controls. They have therefore also contested the institutionalization of the norm of the free movement of capital at the International Monetary Fund. If the issue of capital account policies is indeed representative of the position of China, Brazil and India regarding the neoliberal world order, then this dissertation indicates that although these rising powers might be able to obtain more policy space and allow for more diversity within a global neoliberal context, they do not form a fundamental challenge to this world order. In the absence of major domestic transformations in China, Brazil and India, and/or similar transformations in the West, the neoliberal world order is therefore likely to survive the ongoing power shift to the Global South

Financialised capitalism and the subordination of emerging capitalist economies

The variegated experiences of cinancialisation in Emerging Capitalist Economies (ECEs) require a theory of global structural transformation in which these appearances can be located. Such a transformation can be found in the substantive completion of the internationalisation of the circuits of capital, thereby marking the passage into a new stage of financialised capitalism. In this new stage, finance has taken the concrete form of a US dollar market-based system, while production is carried out through global production networks. The confluence of these new realities has impacted both the size and the nature of the transfer of value from subordinate regions. An increasing share of this transferred value is captured by finance, both as reward for services rendered and as opportunities for expropriation have proliferated. In financialised capitalism, ECEs are cast in a subordinate position in relation to the extraction, realisation, and ‘storage’ of value, and the agency of their public and private agents is severely constrained

Contesting the vision: Mahathirism, the power bloc and the crisis of hegemony in Malaysia

Abstract available: p.

Myanmar's New Generation: A study of elite young people in Yangon, 2010 to 2016

With Myanmar’s 2010 general election the world’s longest reigning military regime undertook a managed diminution of overt authoritarian rule. As the population adjusted to a series of cascading social transformations, elite young people stepped up to catalyse a period of generational change. This thesis considers elite young people in Myanmar from 2010 to 2016, and provides analysis based on extensive fieldwork in the city of Yangon, Myanmar. This thesis disaggregates five social groups of elite young people in contemporary Myanmar, and orders them according to their proximity to established arrangements of the former military regime: the Yakuza gangsters, the cronies, the beloved young women, the cool underground rappers, and the creatives. Through a process of generational rejuvenation elite young people influenced Myanmar’s social and economic transformations, in what proved to be nuanced and contradictory ways. Theories of generations conceptualise generational change as an iterative process, involving the regeneration and rejuvenation of existing explanations and systems alongside the introduction of entirely new ones. In contrast, theories of elite formation explain how various elite qualities are inherited from one generation to the next, often bolstering the social status of the people with that quality. This thesis applies a combination of these approaches to the case study of Myanmar, contributing a vibrant understanding of the processes of generational change, highlighting the role of elite young people in the early days of a wide-ranging social transformation

The political economy of environmental technological change with a case study of the power sector in Vietnam

The escalating imperative of climate change mitigation implies a substantial change in the technologies of electricity generation and supply in industrialised and industrialising countries alike. Understanding how to effect this technological change is therefore imperative if the challenge of climate change is to be addressed. The literature is replete with technology and policy studies investigating technologies, policy instruments and processes of technological change, however, surprisingly little research has addressed the broader political economy context within which any technological change will need to be realised. This research investigates linkages between the sort of systematic environmental technological change implied by the imperative of climate change mitigation and the broader political economy context. Firstly, considering evolutionary economics approaches to understanding technological change, we argue that evolutionary micro-foundations lend themselves to an analysis of political economy processes. Moreover, it is a direct consequence of evolutionary microfoundations that technological change, and particularly that linked with structural change in an economy, is likely to have important political economy implications. Secondly, we show how heterodox approaches to understanding structural change and development in economic systems are consistent with evolutionary micro-foundations and allow the development of an analytical framework based upon an understanding of the process of economic rent creation and preservation. Thirdly, we apply these insights to a critical reconstruction of the evidence on the development of the electricity services industry (ESI), illustrating the importance of political economy considerations in understanding technological and institutional change in that sector. Finally, we apply these insights to a detailed case study of the ESI in Vietnam, investigating the ways in which political economy factors have influenced the broader development of the sector, and examining how the choice of specific technologies is likely to be affected by political economy of the sector

Singapore in global history

This important overview explores the connections between Singapore's past with historical developments worldwide until present day. The contributors analyse Singapore as a city-state seeking to provide an interdisciplinary perspective to the study of the global dimensions contributing to Singapore's growth. The book's global perspective demonstrates that many of the discussions of Singapore as a city-state have relevance and implications beyond Singapore to include Southeast Asia and the world. This vital volume should not be missed by economists, as well as those interested in imperial history, business history and networks

Singapore in Global History

This important overview explores the connections between Singapore's past with historical developments worldwide until present day. The contributors analyse Singapore as a city-state seeking to provide an interdisciplinary perspective to the study of the global dimensions contributing to Singapore's growth. The book's global perspective demonstrates that many of the discussions of Singapore as a city-state have relevance and implications beyond Singapore to include Southeast Asia and the world. This vital volume should not be missed by economists, as well as those interested in imperial history, business history and networks