Eleni Tsingou

Club governance and the making of global financial rules

ABSTRACT Who writes the rules of global finance? This article explains how the transnational financial policy community can influence the content of financial governance by organizing itself via a club model. This agent-centered explanation advances the concept of a club to highlight the mechanisms through which actors operate, the expertise and skills valued by this community and the way in which principles for what constitutes appropriate financial governance are derived. Evidence is provided by an investigation of the Group of Thirty, part-think tank, part-advocacy group, a hybrid organization whose members are active in both the official and private sectors. Club characteristics can be seen in the groups high profile and prestigious membership, which self-presents a strong sense of honor. The article highlights the club as a location for those traditionally understood as financial elites. It emphasizes the collective attributes of the club, such as reputational consistency of membership, but also the importance of a track record of policy work for the enduring relevance of club arrangements in agenda-setting, consensus building and establishing mechanisms for private influence in financial governance. The study draws on 80+ interviews with key stakeholders from the community, including group members, conducted between 1998 and 2010.

The politics of legitimate global governance

ABSTRACT Legitimacy is an important question to ask of the theory and practice of global governance. In this introduction, we make two propositions that are used to push thinking about these issues forward. Firstly, in analytical terms we outline a spectrum between legitimacy and legitimization which is aimed to capture the diverse set of approaches to this subject and to develop an engaged and reformist attitude that refuses the either-or distinction in favour of a methodologically pluralist logic of ‘both and’. Secondly, in political terms, we argue that discussions of legitimate global governance in both policy and academic circles can carry a ‘Trojan horse’ quality whereby the ambiguity of the term might allow a point of intervention for more ambitious ethical objectives.

Responding to the Global Credit Crisis: The Politics of Financial Reform

This financial crisis emerged from an over-supply of financial innovation and an under-supply of financial regulation within the core advanced economies. Financial governance reform can focus on behaviour, acknowledge systemic implications and inherent limitations, and strive for more representation and accountability.

The Club Rules in Global Financial Governance

Though the list of reforms following the onset of the financial crisis is long, we should resist the temptation to view the emerging regulatory framework in terms of a paradigm shift. Many key features of the system, including the privileged position of financial institutions, remain unchanged. This is not merely due to obstruction or capacity shortcomings but can be explained by considering the sources of ideas and the governance setting. Ideas and policy programmes for reform were generated by a policy community also responsible for shaping the pre-crisis governance framework. Moreover, the ideas and preferences of these players are moulded by their transnational interactions and the club-like mechanisms in place for determining what (and who) is to be included in discussions. These settings have produced policy programmes that helped address the immediate, ‘fast-burning’ elements of the crisis, but have so far failed to put together a comprehensive reform programme.

Targeting Money Laundering: Global Approach or Diffusion of Authority?

“The goal of a large number of criminal acts is to generate profit for the individual or group that carries out the act. Money laundering is the processing of these criminal proceeds to disguise their illegal origin”—thus is money laundering defined in the official documentation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Money Laundering, an official body created in 1989 as international efforts to deal with this issue intensified. This definition goes to the heart of a dual problem: tackling money laundering is important in order to address organized crime such as drug trafficking, arms sales, and, most recently, terrorism. At the same time, detection is problematic because the financial transactions at stake mostly follow regular procedures; it is the way that funds are generated and the way in which they might be used that could be irregular.

Bodies of Knowledge in Reproduction: Epistemic Boundaries in the Political Economy of Fertility

Professionals compete and cooperate over how states should govern their population. Declining fertility rates in advanced economies have led to debates about how to enable those of reproductive age to have more children and to have them earlier. This springs from political and socio-economic concerns about fulfilling desired fertility rates, maintaining high levels of human capital, and supporting fiscal and pension systems. This article investigates professionals addressing declining fertility through assisted reproductive technologies (ART), including doctors, demographers and economists. These professional groups have their own bodies of knowledge on how they view fertility, fecundity and the role of women in social reproduction. They can also cooperate to create ‘issue linkages’ on ART across their professional ecologies. The article discusses how professionals apply their bodies of knowledge to the political economy of fertility. Professional bodies of knowledge directly inform how women and men are treated on fertility issues and the policy options available.

Europe’s fast- and slow-burning crises

ABSTRACT The European Union has been confronted with crises across a range of policy areas. Crises have typically been viewed as providing impetus for further integration but are now straining the European project. This research agenda piece proposes a framework to understand crises and distinguish how they are comprehended as ‘fast-burning’ and ‘slow-burning’ phenomena. Those who view crises as fast-burning typically rally material and ideational resources to address issues with high political intensity. When a crisis is perceived as slow-burning, the key concern is with how the issue is framed and how social expectations are changing. Thinking of fast- and slow-burning crises permits analytical distinctions in how authorities and social actors view crises and how they consider actual conditions and future narratives. The framework assists in specifying how authorities and expert and civil society groups develop policy programmes and frames, as well as changes to European societies’ experiences and expectations.