1 - 9 of 9
Number of results to display per page
Search Results
2. The Return of the State and Its Alla Turca Version
- Author:
- Isik Özel and Ümit İzmen
- Publication Date:
- 08-2024
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Uluslararasi Iliskiler
- Institution:
- International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
- Abstract:
- Economic nationalism and state intervention recently gained attraction in many countries including Turkey. This paper questions whether Turkey has changed its economic policy framework towards a statecentric model and, if so, whether these changes are well thought-out and sustainable. The examination of key areas of state capitalism, that is the monetary, industrial, trade, financial, and state economic enterprise (SEE) policies put forward in the officially adopted five-year plans and annual programs, suggests that the changes in the economic policy framework began after the 2008 global crisis and accelerated after the transition to a presidential system. Upon examination, the policy framework does not reflect a definitive, coherent, and wholistic approach but rather a pragmatic attitude that swings back and forth, which exposes the country to swings in the global system.
- Topic:
- Globalization, Economy, State, State Capitalism, and International Order
- Political Geography:
- Turkey and Middle East
3. Between State Capitalism and Economic State Craft: China INC.
- Author:
- Sadia Rahman
- Publication Date:
- 08-2024
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Uluslararasi Iliskiler
- Institution:
- International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
- Abstract:
- China’s economy underwent regulatory, structural as well as spatial makeovers since the increase of opening up and reforms in 1978. Intermittent policy interventions have been implemented by the Chinese state to ensure that the economy plays a vital role. Relatedly, the Communist leadership’s economic perspective was shaped by two key attributes: ideology and functionality (pp. 8, 11, 42, 119, 148, 313, 314). From an ideological perspective, the legacy of reforms was as crucial as the equitable principle of Communist rule in China, as both ensured the party’s survival and its control over the state. From a functional perspective, the state’s performance remained an essential indicator for China to achieve economic growth and improve the living conditions of its people. In his book, Between State Capitalism and Economic State Craft: China INC, China expert Aravind Yelery captures the systemic reflections of these transitions, mapping how the state fused growth and encouraged further opening to help China manifest its rise. The book delves into China’s growth models examining how these contradictions are ‘chosen ones’ and how China aims to rally its economic statecraft globally. The central crux is the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) authority retention over the economy by preventing the state from giving up control over important sectors and industries. State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) played a vital part in achieving this goal in China’s economy, allowing the CPC to control governance. Thus, the chapters are significantly interconnected enlightening on the ascendancy of capitalist approaches in the CPC, exploring how China managed to defy the decline experienced by previous communist regimes. The explanation of SOEs is presented as a key factor in establishing effective domestic economic controls, ultimately enabling China to exert its dominance in global economic affairs.
- Topic:
- Economics, Regulation, and State Capitalism
- Political Geography:
- China and Asia
4. State Capitalism, Imperialism, and China: Bringing History Back In
- Author:
- Isabella Weber
- Publication Date:
- 02-2023
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Abstract:
- State capitalism is experiencing a great revival as a term to capture the current capitalist constellations, increasingly replacing neoliberalism. Unlike neoliberalism, however, the term state capitalism has a long history reaching back to the age of imperialism in the late 19th century. While state capitalism has been used as a pejorative term by Marxists, liberals and neoliberals alike, it has served as a programmatic label for developmentalist and neomercantilist projects in reaction to imperialism in the periphery. This paper argues that we need to bring the intellectual history of state capitalism into the ‘new state capitalism’ debate. China has played a major role in the revival of state capitalism in the social sciences, but the long history of China’s engagement with state capitalism as a concept and program dating back to the late Qing reformers has been overlooked for the most part. State capitalism is by no means new to China, from Liang Qichao, Sun Yatsen and Mao Zedong to Deng Xiaoping, the idea that China had to create a modern nation state and industrial capitalism in the name of economic progress and to get ahead in the global competition is a recurring theme. What is new is that for the first time the ambition to use state capitalism as a means to catch up with the West is bearing fruits in ways that could undermine the predominance of Western economies.
- Topic:
- Imperialism, Political Economy, History, Capitalism, and State Capitalism
- Political Geography:
- China and Asia
5. From the pandemic to a reorganization of time? Time sociological perspectives on the relationship between temporality, economy and state.
- Author:
- Lisa Suckert
- Publication Date:
- 12-2021
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
- Abstract:
- Does the pandemic foreshadow a more sustainable order of time? Can the crisis allow for a departure from the capitalist time regime? This article looks at the Covid-19 pandemic and respective state interventions from a perspective inspired by the sociology of time and eco- nomic sociology. It shows that the social and economic disruptions attributed to the pan- demic can be understood as the result of a collision of opposing temporal logics. In order to contain the pandemic, the state initially enforced ways of dealing with time that contradict the capitalist time regime and its major principles – commodification and rational use of time, acceleration, and appropriation of the future. This “return of the state” as a power governing its citizens’ time does not, however, in itself imply a “new temporal order” that goes beyond the current state of emergency. The article shows that those state interventions intended not to contain the virus but to mitigate its social and economic consequences can often be understood as attempts to mediate between different temporal logics and cushion their collision. They essentially facilitate a “return” to the capitalist time regime and thus perpetuate time-related inequalities.
- Topic:
- Capitalism, Inequality, Pandemic, COVID-19, and State Capitalism
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
6. Marching to Good Laws: The Impact of War, Politics, and International Credit on Reforms in Ukraine
- Author:
- Artem Kochnev
- Publication Date:
- 01-2021
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW)
- Abstract:
- The paper investigates determinants of investments in state capacity and institutional change in contemporary Ukraine. After formulating a simple sequential two-stage model of investments in state capacity, the paper estimates autoregressive distributed lag and vector autoregressive models to verify its predictions. The paper finds little evidence for the impact of conflict intensity and access to international credit on the pace of reform progress. It finds a statistically significant effect for the intensity of political competition and changes of real wages, albeit these results are sensitive to robustness checks.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Political Economy, War, Labor Issues, Credit, International Business, State Capitalism, and Models
- Political Geography:
- Ukraine
7. The evolution of Belarusian public sector: From command economy to state capitalism?
- Author:
- Aliaksandr Papko
- Publication Date:
- 04-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Social and Economic Research - CASE
- Abstract:
- Belarus was among the few post-communist countries to resign from comprehensive market reforms and attempt to improve the efficiency of the economy through administrative means, leaving market mechanisms only an auxiliary role. Since its inception, the ‘Belarusian economic model’ has undergone several revisions of a de-statisation and de-regulation kind, but still the Belarusian economy remains dominated by the state. This paper analyses the characteristic features of the Belarusian economic system – especially those related to the public sector – as well as its evolution over time during the period following its independence. The paper concludes that during the post-Soviet period, the Belarusian economy evolved from a quasi-Soviet system based on state property, state planning, support to inefficient enterprises and the massive redistribution of funds to a more flexible hybrid model where the public sector still remains the core of the economy. The case of Belarus shows that presently there is no appropriate theoretical perspective which, in an unmodified form, could be applied to study this type of economic system. Therefore, a new perspective based on an already existing but updated approach or a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates the duality of the Belarusian economy is required.
- Topic:
- Reform, Economy, Economic Growth, Public Sector, Trade, and State Capitalism
- Political Geography:
- Eurasia and Belarus
8. Gulf financial aid and direct investment: Tracking the implications of state capitalism, aid, and investment flows
- Author:
- Karen E. Young
- Publication Date:
- 08-2020
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
- Abstract:
- Much energy has focused on China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the debt-trap diplomacy it represents. But there is another set of players on the scene whose growth and influence in this sphere have been largely ignored. Gulf Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have increasingly embraced an aggressive growth, investment, and development model for the broader Middle East. This report and the accompanying Gulf Financial Aid and Direct Investment Tracker are an effort to understand the breadth and scope of Gulf aid and financial intervention into a representative set of cases in the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, and West Asia. The objective is to demonstrate the competitive landscape for foreign investment in the receiving case countries and indicate the growing strength of Gulf capital investment, as it measures against a perception of Chinese capacity in the wider Middle East and emerging markets broadly. Most important, the comparative data here also demonstrate how private capital flows from the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union compete against flows of capital from state capitalism sources such as China and the Gulf.
- Topic:
- Foreign Direct Investment, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Investment, Strategic Competition, and State Capitalism
- Political Geography:
- China, Middle East, and Gulf Nations
9. The Privatisation of the Polish Banking Sector
- Author:
- Hubert A. Janiszewski
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Warsaw East European Review (WEER)
- Institution:
- Centre for East European Studies, University of Warsaw
- Abstract:
- The Polish banking sector, at the outset of the Balcerowicz reform plan, was com- posed of the central bank (NBP), 9 regional commercial banks (which had spun out from NBP back in 1988): the state savings bank – PKO BP; the state bank handling foreign com- merce – Bank Handlowy SA; the state bank handling retail foreign exchange transfers – PeKaO SA; the state bank for financing the agriculture sector – BGZ; and a number of small cooperative banks – BRE SA a bank financing export industries established in 1986; and a single private bank, albeit with equity provided by state enterprises – BIG SA. The Ministry of Finance faced a formidable task, firstly to restructure the banking sec- tor – primarily commercial banks and at a later stage privatize the whole sector in order to i.a make it market oriented, flexible and serve large chunks of the rapidly privatizing economy as well as to cater to the needs of the population. It should be stressed – to give the full description of the sector, that the percentage of bad loans in all the above-mentioned banks (except BIG, BRE and probably PKO BP) was between 30 to 50% of their portfolios! It was therefore decided by Finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz and his key staff, that prior to their privatization, restructuring of the banks was the key for their success. The major problem with restructuring was a lack of funding, which was not available as the Polish state was bankrupt and private resources were by far too small, and politi- cally inaccessible; moreover the parliament would not allow creation of additional debt by way of equity injections to the ailing banking sector. Under those difficult conditions Balcerowicz managed to pass through parliament a set of legislation on restructuring the economy including banks, which allowed for the provision of banks with so-called restructuring bonds (a special law had been enacted called the “Law on financial restructuring of banks and enterprises”) to strengthen their balance sheets and force them to individually, over time, repay such new debts. In order to guide and help the banks with the restructuring, with the assistance of the British Government, the so-called British Know How Fund was created, whose purpose was to provide professional advice and assistance to all commercial banks. This advice was strengthened by a so-called “twinning arrangement”, under which each of the nine commercial banks was provided with a “twin partner” in the form of an established western bank. Among the banks that participated in this scheme were the Allied Irish Bank (twinned to WBK based in Poznan), ING (Bank Śląski in Katowice) and the Midland Bank (Bank Za- chodni in Wroclaw). The whole operation was launched in early 1990 and was completed by early 1993, thus most of the commercial banks were potentially ”ready” for privatization with substan- tially improved balance sheets. Parallel to the above, all the other banks embarked on the restructuring of their balance sheets, if only in order to stay competitive in the market.
- Topic:
- Privatization, Finance, State Capitalism, and Banking
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, and Poland