When Italian economics “Was Second to None”. Luigi Einaudi and the Turin School of Economics

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the work of a group of economists that was an important expression of a fertile season of Italian economics, in the period from the mid-1890s to the end of 1930s, which developed around the figure of Luigi Einaudi, and earlier, around that of his master Cognetti de Martiis. This School expressed a range of thought of high value in the political and economic sphere. In the economic field, the School established a fertile relation between historical–empirical work and economic theory; in the political field it investigated the relation between freedom and economic order.     

Geopolitics and the Screen: War,the Body and Violence

The paper investigates the promise of Carl Schmitt's concept of ‘nomos’ for developing new spatial imaginaries apposite to the study of ‘the border’ in contemporary political life, as per the aims of the ‘Lines in the Sand’ research agenda. Schmitt introduced the idea of a ‘nomos of the earth’ to refer to the fundamental relation between space and political order. There have been various historical expressions of the nomos, from the Respublica Christiana, to the jus publicum Europaeum, to a post–World War II (dis)order yet to be adequately theorised. We aim to explore the relatively overlooked spatial ontology of Schmitt's work and suggest ways in which it might prompt alternative ways of thinking about borders and bordering practices as representative of broader dynamics in the relation between space and political order.     

Independent courts and administrative agencies: an empirical analysis of the states

This article explores the hypothesis that state administrativeagencies spend more time and effort attempting to protect theiractions from judicial review in states with more independentappointed courts (as opposed to less independent elected courts).This is because more independent courts are (by definition)less influenced by the political/electoral forces that underlieagency - policymaking - as rational actors, agencies may thereforebe expected to recognize the degree of judicial independenceand respond to it. Three state agencies subject to substantialjudicial review in the 1970s are examined: utility commissions,insurance commissions, and the public education bureaucracy.Controlling for relevant political factors, each is found tohave significantly larger staffing for a given regulatory workloadin states with more independent appointed courts, consistentwith the hypothesis.     

The significance of the political: individuality and public happiness

The paper argues that individualist (liberal and conservative) views of the individual and the state are contradictory in regard to each and to the relation between them. In failing to give substantial content to the individual and to the state, they make the former a nonentity, and the latter either unlimited or nonexistent. By contrast, the view of plural individuality, according to which individuals are constituted through relations with one another, offers an adequate account of the individual in which the political plays a substantial role especially through the necessity of public happiness.     

Japanese nationalism and geographical thought

There has been simultaneous emergence in many countries of the world of political disputes over aspects of national history in the 1990s. Geographical knowledge has political implications. Hence it is concerned with the formation of national identity as well as historical knowledge. This paper examines the relationships between Japanese modernisation and geographical thought, the characteristics of school textbooks and geopolitics in Japan during the Asia Pacific War, and recent disputes about views of history and the meaning of views of geography in the post‐Cold War era. Consequently, it is shown that the view of geography promoted the formation of national identity in the same way as that of history through geographical education and geopolitics. Taking the roles of geography into consideration, it can be said that an imaginative geography based on an ethnocentric view plays an important role in the time of rethinking national history. We should be aware of such an ethnocentric view of geography and make an effort to overcome differences in views between nations.     

Karl Haushofer and geopolitics — the history of a German mythos

This essay attempts to reassess the writings of Karl Haushofer, a German professor of geopolitics during the period of the Third Reich. However, this examination is not to be another historical reflection. Instead it approaches the question what different kinds of historical reflections on Karl Haushofer as a person and his geopolitics were made in Germany and how they influenced the further geopolitical research. The different interpretations of Haushofer are examined in the form of a discourse analytic study. It shows that the different judgments concerning his work are open to diverse political interpretations.     

Rethinking strategy and geopolitics: Critical responses to globalisation

Rethinking geopolitics is a key feature of those disciplines concerned with rearticulating the site and nature of political space and political community in an age of globalisation causing much social protest and concern. The article focuses upon how social movements challenging globalisation are rearticulating and rethinking, through their objectives and strategies, the practices, meaning and site of state sovereignty and ‘the (geo)political’. The article focuses upon the way critical movements such as the Emiliano Zapata (Zapatista) Army of National Liberation (EZLN) are engaging with new ways of thinking about, representing and constructing political space and the relationship between the local and the global whilst cultivating an inclusionary national community project(s). The article argues that the EZLN engages in a struggle which may provide an insight into the possibility of cultivating alternative and genuinely democratic civil societies and inclusive political communities that transcend the exclusionary cartography and institutions of the neoliberal state.     

Cross‐border regionalisation in the ‘New Europe’ ‐ theoretical reflection with two illustrative examples

Regionalisation has recently become a catchword both in political practice and academic discourse. Even if the idea of the ‘Europe of the Regions’ is no longer uncritically accepted, regional imagination still frequently informs the analysis of the European political order. This article seeks to chart alternative ways of understanding political change in Europe. It first outlines the current understanding of the role of regions in Europe, and seeks to put contemporary ideas into historical perspective. The article then examines the standard way of analysing regionalism, the ‘top‐down, bottom‐up’ metaphor. By looking at the scales of politics from a social constructionist perspective the article shows that this widely‐used metaphor does not adequately capture much of the political history of region building, nor is it able to identify the relations of power involved in regionalisation in the era of expanding trans‐boundary linkages and networks across state borders. By illustrating cross‐border regionalisation with examples from Karelia and Catalonia, the article seeks to assess some of the tensions that arise between the new deterritorialised forms of trans‐regional governance and the traditional democratic practice, which is still tightly connected to areal political spaces both institutionally and in terms of the inhabitants’ collective identity. The article argues for a heightened awareness of the relational social power characteristic of network governance and potential leaks in the ‘territorial containers’ of democracy.     

‘Philosophie économique’ and money in France, 1750–1776: the stakes of a transformation

Abstract

The developments of political economy in France between 1750 and 1776 did not allocate a central place to the discussion of the nature and functions of money. The object of this paper is to account for this fact and what it denotes: the disappearance of money as a central object in the discourse on economy and society. We outline the context of this mutation in relation to the ideas of Montesquieu, Gournay and Forbonnais. The actors of this change will then be considered: the promoters throughout these years of ‘philosophie économique’ i.e. Quesnay, the Physiocrats and Turgot. An analysis of these authors, together with a founder of this perspective, Boisguilbert, will show how the status and role of money was modified and illuminate the issues involved. This transformation can be related to the affirmation of a new political discourse whose foundations are rooted in economic interest.     

States and Caliphates

ABSTRACT

At the end of June 2014, Abu Baqr al-Baghdadi, the leader of what was to become Da’ish or the Islamic State, announced at the main mosque in Mosul the creation of an ‘Islamic caliphate’ with himself as caliph. With its creation, he announced, the division of the Middle East, forced upon the region by the 1916 Sykes–Picot agreement, was ended, to be replaced by a territorially limitless caliphate for all Muslims. Despite the obvious political rhetoric that the announcement involved, al-Baghdadi’s aspirations raised interesting questions of historical and legal interpretation. Quite apart from what the Sykes–Picot agreement actually established, to what extent, for instance, is there an innate contradiction between visions of state and boundary in international law and the Islamic concept of the caliphate? How have those concepts evolved over the past century and how inimical are contemporary views of ‘the caliphate’ to established principles of territorial delimitation? And, to what extent do the actual territorial delimitations of Middle Eastern states reflect pre-colonial patterns of spatial division rather than simply the consequences of colonial imposition? How distinct, in short, are the apparently opposed concepts of state and caliphate in the contemporary world? This article will attempt to show that the points of similarity between them are probably far greater than is usually recognised.     

The fraying modern map: Failed states and contraband capitalism

Inter‐relationships between markets and states are re‐making the world political map but in some instances these interactions have created zones of political conflict where the world political map is fraying and coming undone. In certain ‘wild zones’ of the world, state failure and illegal exchange are the prevalent processes conditioning civil and nationalist wars. This paper considers the general relationships between turbo‐globalisation, contraband capitalism, and failed states. Using the case of Russia and Chechnya, it seeks to illustrate and describe the illegal and illicit forms of governance that are fraying the ‘modern map’ and contributing to the complexity of the story of ‘nationalism in a globalising world.’     

Shock therapy and the transfer of institutions: the new debate and some lessons from the post-1806 reforms in Prussia and in southwestern Germany

There is a new debate on shock therapy versus gradualism in economics, this time referring to developing and emerging countries. The French Revolution and its impact on the other European nations has repeatedly been highlighted as a historical example for both the merits and pitfalls of the Big Bang strategy. The present paper argues that a comparison between the post-1806 reforms in Prussia and in the southwestern states of Germany offers a particularly interesting historical case study that in the economics literature has not yet received the attention it deserves. In particular, the case study shows how deeply intertwined the economic and political dimension of social transformations are, and that different economic reforms strategies cannot and should not be evaluated without taking political starting conditions into account. In view of recent reform experiences it is particularly interesting to see that Prussia offers maybe the first historical case of state capture by the East-Elbian Junkers.     

Economic Reforms in Socialist Economics: A Comment on Petr

Abstract:

The pre-WWII approaches to trade unions were mainly based on the theoretical and methodological viewpoints of early institutional economics. Trade unions were conceived of as politico-economic organizations whose members were motivated by relative comparisons, and also were concerned with issues of equity and justice. In the post-war period, there was a major theoretical and methodological shift toward the idea of unions as optimizing economic units with well-defined objective functions, which are optimized subject to purely economic constraints. This conceptual transformation took place mainly through the Dunlop -Ross debate, in which John Dunlop conceived of unions as analogous to business firms, as opposed to Arthur Ross’s institutional and political approach. However, after decades of analytical developments, the current state of trade union theory has not produced very impressive theoretical results. We trace the historical development of the economic analysis of trade unions from a methodological perspective. We also examine the methodological reasons for the dominance of Dunlop’s approach, and the current state of – and the contemporary criticism toward – the established theory. Furthermore, we discuss the contemporary efforts to build a more comprehensive approach to trade union theory and trade union objectives, also incorporating Ross’s institutional and political insights.     

The Rise of Digital Financialisation: The Case of India

ABSTRACT

Traditional notions of financialisation require updating to study the reorganisation of finance around digital infrastructures. We introduce the concept of digital financialisation, defined as the often-coerced merging of two hitherto separate aspects of citizens’ lives – interactions using digital technologies and financial transactions – into a new hybrid realm. This realm is undergirded by an infrastructure that harvests citizens’ data, which companies can monetise and governments can use for political surveillance. In developing countries, the state plays a key role in creating surveillance infrastructures, often using coercive means in the name of financial inclusion, as the demonetisation and Aadhaar projects in India show. Unlike the industry-finance conflict in ‘analogue’ financialisation, digital financialisation involves domestic and cross-border conflicts between tech and finance companies for control of the hybrid realm. The state mediates these conflicts. In India, it deploys a narrative of technocultural nationalism to cultivate its domestic political constituencies and downplay its reliance on foreign technology.     

Trans‐state entities: Postmodern cracks in the great Westphalian dam

With the seemingly sudden end of the Cold War and the succeeding disintegration of the Soviet Union, the 1990s opened as a decade promising structural change in a geopolitical system premised on the overall stability of superpower rivalry. Yet as the decade comes to a close, challenges to the structure of global politics have grown deeper and more pervasive than could have been conceived only ten years before. Postmodernist deconstructions of the meaning and viability of states have emerged throughout the course of the decade to challenge the very viability of the Westphalian state system upon which the fundamental principles of global politics have been based. Concurrent with these philosophical developments has been the institutional emergence of quasi‐political entities, herein referred to as ‘trans‐state entities’ (TSEs), comprised of the constituent parts of neighbouring states. It is argued that TSEs manifest themselves as the result of a convergence of the increased permeability of boundaries between states and the postmodern deconstruction of states themselves as their sub‐state political units seek closer co‐operation, even policy co‐ordination, to improve their collective economic, environmental, or other situation. Three TSEs, diverse in both geographical location and in institutional manifestation yet concurrently quite similar in their means, purposes and goals, will be examined.     

Further reflections on the 'Hidden Theology' of Adam Smith

Abstract

A re-reading of the Thousand and One Nights in light of economic thought is attempted here. These stories characterize a bazaar economy as the dark side of medieval economics. The process-view of the bazaar is discussed in relation to Smith, Walras and the Austrian School. The tacit notions of ‘market price’ and ‘natural price’ are touched upon. Auctions are then elaborated with reference to Böhm-Bawerk. Moreover, the role of asymmetric information as a recurrent theme is interpreted in relation with Akerlof's approach. Finally, the collective function of the tales in fostering confidence in a less-than-well instituted bazaar economy is emphasized.     

Institutions and Development From a Historical Perspective: the Case of the Brazilian Development Bank

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the role played by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) in different periods of Brazil’s development process since its founding in 1952. The bank’s history is nonlinear, varying with socio-economic and political changes over time. Four major periods in its history are: (i) from its creation to the debt crisis in the 1980s, a period known as ‘developmentalism’; (ii) the neoliberal movement of the 1990s; (iii) the reintroduction of the BNDES as a relevant tool for development in the 2000s; and (iv) a new neoliberal movement that arose beginning in mid-2016. Each of these periods is characterized by certain development conventions that shape how institutions, such as the BNDES, operate, and at the same time are shaped by them. In contrast to mainstream economics, which focuses on a one-size-fits-all institution for development, this paper evaluates the interactions between development and institutions as historical processes, with an emphasis on the prevailing development conventions. The trajectory and different roles assumed by the BNDES over time exemplify this permanent relationship, rejecting the idea that particular types of institutions are related to development.     

Domestic Sources of Twenty-first-century Geopolitics: Domestic Politics and Sovereign Wealth Funds in GCC Economies

The present article brings domestic politics into an analysis on sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) that are relevant for the study of contemporary geopolitics. What are the domestic drivers behind SWF creation, and how does a country’s domestic political environment affect the creation of these funds? Using a comparative historical case study on sovereign funds in Gulf Cooperation Countries, this article investigates the effects of domestic state–society structures on decisions about SWF creation and their evolving structure. Thereby, this article adds to an emerging stream of literature that looks at the drivers and implications of SWFs. One of the key findings of this analysis is that there are systematic links between the sovereign fund types and domestic structures; these structures include and exclude socio-economic actors that influence policy-making decisions.     

Sarantis Archigenes (Serandi Arşizen), Pellegrino Rossi and the spread of the classical approach in the Ottoman Empire

Abstract

Although he succeeded Say at the College de France as chair in 1833, Pellegrino Rossi is not considered a great economist nor has he been appreciated as an original one. However, his lectures in the College de France inspired a young Ottoman-Greek, Sarantis Archigenes, who wrote a political economy book which discussed the economic problems of the Ottoman Empire of the mid-nineteenth century. This article provides an account of the traces of Rossi's ideas in the formation of Archigenes' views, with an aim to present Rossi's role in the dissemination of Classical political economic ideas in the Ottoman lands.     

Postmodernity,globalisation and nationalist conflict in the former Yugoslavia

During the 1990s, several of the conflicts that have demanded most media attention have been associated with the disintegration of the Yugoslav Federation. A number of attempts have been made to outline the main causes of these, but these causal factors remain difficult to describe definitively, largely owing to the complexity of the post‐Yugoslav political landscape. This paper studies the validity of employing a postmodern paradigm for investigating the conflicts in former Yugoslavia, as well as other current conflicts, arguing that the present cultural and philosophical context has to be addressed. After an outline of some of the key aspects of postmodernity, the focus centres on the importance of the media and the postmodern perspective on the issue of the nation state. Key theories related to postmodern conflict, with relation to economic and cultural factors, are outlined. These are evaluated as regards their applicability to the Yugoslav conflicts and ‐ by extension ‐ to all future wars in the postmodern era.