Abstract

This paper tackles one of the most recent issues in international and comparative political economy: the process of state financialization. Although research on global financial markets has revealed that states play a crucial role in private sector financialization, until recently, much less attention has been paid to state financialization itself. This includes both the measurement of cross-country variation and the question of why this process unfolds unevenly across political economies. We propose a perspective that focuses on two areas, the management of public debt and assets, and the various ways in which states are active in financial markets. Bridging material and cultural concepts in political economy, we differentiate between the reliance on financial markets as governance mechanism and the adoption of a sense-making framework grounded in financial economics and the shareholder-value model. We distill four indicators, trace cross-national and inter-temporal developments in 36 European countries since 1990, and explore how far this variation is associated with domestic and international political economic factors. The paper concludes that state and private sector financialization are mutually reinforcing processes. In addition, future research must pay strong attention to the tensions between finance and democracy as well as the distributive consequences of state financialization.

摘要

本文解决了国际和比较政治经济学中的最新问题之一：国家金融化的过程。尽管对全球金融市场的研究表明，国家在私营部门金融化中发挥着至关重要的作用，但直到最近，人们对国家金融化本身的关注还少得多。这既包括对跨国差异的测量，也包括为什么这个过程在政治经济中不均衡地展开的问题。我们提出了一个侧重于两个领域的观点，即公共债务和资产的管理，以及国家在金融市场中活跃的各种方式。连接政治经济学中的物质和文化概念，我们区分依赖金融市场作为治理机制和采用基于金融经济学和股东价值模型的意义构建框架。我们提取了四个指标，追踪了 36 个欧洲国家自 1990 年以来的跨国和跨期发展，并探讨了这种变化与国内和国际政治经济因素的关联程度。该论文得出结论，国家和私营部门的金融化是相辅相成的过程。此外，未来的研究必须高度关注金融与民主之间的紧张关系以及国家金融化的分配后果。追溯 1990 年以来 36 个欧洲国家的跨国和跨期发展，并探讨这种变化与国内和国际政治经济因素的关联程度。该论文得出结论，国家和私营部门的金融化是相辅相成的过程。此外，未来的研究必须高度关注金融与民主之间的紧张关系以及国家金融化的分配后果。追溯 1990 年以来 36 个欧洲国家的跨国和跨期发展，并探讨这种变化与国内和国际政治经济因素的关联程度。该论文得出结论，国家和私营部门的金融化是相辅相成的过程。此外，未来的研究必须高度关注金融与民主之间的紧张关系以及国家金融化的分配后果。