National currencies appear to be threatened from all sides. European Union member countries are due to abandon their national currencies in favour of a supranational currency by the year 2000. Elsewhere, the use of foreign currencies within national economic spaces is on the increase, as shown by the growth of eurocurrency activity, and currency substitution in many parts of the world. In the last decade, privately-issued sub-national local currencies have also proliferated in a number of countries, and predict the emergence of private electronic monies of the future. In the this book asks...

This text presents an analysis of class formation in the global political economy. It deals with the growth of an integrated, transnational capitalist class, from freemasonry in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution to contemporary planning groups with a class orientation such as the World Economic Forum. The study provides the student and academic reader with a systematic overview of the theory and concepts developed in the Research Centre for International Political Economy at the University of Amsterdam. Among its areas of focus are: the processes of commodification and socialization;...

"Gobalization and Governance" is an impartial collection written for researchers and students of political science and international relations, international political economy or world politics.

It has become a commonplace that there has been an information revolution, transforming both society and the economy. In 1995 the Trade Related Intellectual Property (TRIPs) agreement aimed to harmonise protection for property in knowledge throughout the global system.
This book considers the contemporary disputes about the ownership of knowledge resources - as in the cases of genetically modified foods, the music industry or the internet - and the problematic nature of the TRIPs agreement. In this highly topical book, Christopher May reveals that, because of such problems, at present the...

This text focuses on the emergence of employment policy as a political issue and examines unemployment in Europe in the context of globalization, the implementation of European Monetary Union and the Eastern enlargement of the EU. The authors address the transformation of the global economy over the past decades and consider the theoretical debates surrounding European integration. They analyse how various social and political forces, both national and transnational, have addressed the challenges facing the European economies and how this interplay has influenced the emerging EU social and...

Global Unions? examines the role of unions in an increasingly global political economy. Labour issues have recently jumped on to the agenda of international relations and industrial relations and unions have been active in trying to influence policies of international organizations such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and trade agreements in the Americas. This volume first considers various theoretical approaches that can advance understanding global union issues, discusses national and macro-regional labour responses to global challenges...

This is the first systematic attempt to explore the causal relationship between financial market reform and financial crisis in an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective. It examines the political underpinnings of financial policy-change and provides an in-depth analysis of market liberalisation processes and their impact on the economic turmoil of 1997-98 in Korea and Thailand. The common crisis stemmed from divergent reform patterns and originated from dissimilar institutional deficiencies and political constraints.
The book will be essential reading for both policy-makers and...

This unique book explores a very broad range of ideas and institutions and provides thorough and detailed case studies in the context of broader theoretical analysis.

Key topics such as poverty, global governance, sustainable development and the environment are closely examined, with detailed case studies of the World Bank, the WTO, the IMF, Asian Development Bank, UN Development Programme and the OECD's Development Assistance Committee.

The impact multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and IMF have on development is hotly debated, but few doubt their power and...

A keen analysis of how and why countries bargain together in groups in world affairs, and why such coalitions are crucial to individual developing nations. It also reveals the effects these negotiating blocs are having on world affairs.

Successful coalition building has proven to be a difficult and expensive process. Allies are often not obvious and need to be carefully identified. Large numbers do not necessarily entail a proportionate increase in influence. And the weak have the choice of teaming up against or jumping on the bandwagon with the strong. Even after it has...

Hannes Lacher presents a new critical social theory of international relations that integrates sociology, history and political geography to understand the formation and development of modern international relations.

Far from implying a return to state-centrist Realism, this essential new volume leads us towards a critical social theory of international relations that questions the prevailing conceptions of the modern international political economy as a collection of nationally bounded spaces more fundamentally than ever before. It also shows us that capitalist...