The politics of currency crises in Sweden: policy choice in a globalised economy

West European Politics

Volumn 21, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 103-119

  Hinnfors, Jonas ^a   Pierre, Jon ^b,c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG   (Sweden)

^b UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE   (United Kingdom)

^c UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GLOBALISATION; MONETARY POLICY; POLICY MAKING; POLITICAL ECONOMY; POLITICAL PROCESS;

SWEDEN;

EID: 0031709403     PISSN: 01402382     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01402389808425259     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the Joint Sessions of the European Consortium for Political Research, Bern, 27 Feb.-4 March 1997.
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4. K. Ohmae, The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economics (London: Harper Collins 1995); W. Streeck, 'Public Power Beyond the Nation-State', in R. Boyer and D. Drache (eds.) Stales Against Markets: The Limits of Globalisation (London and NY:
5. Routledge 1996) pp.299-315; R.B. Reich ne Work of Nations (NY: Vintage 1991).
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10. Boyer and Drache, 'Introduction', in idem (note 4) p. 15.
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15. A. Payne, 'Globalisation and Modes of Regionalist Governance' (paper delivered to the First Sheffield/Pittsburgh Colloquium, University of Sheffield, 16-17 May 1996) p.6; cf. Evans (note 8) pp.62-87; C. Navari, 'On the Withering Away of the State', in idem (ed.) The Condition of Stales (Milton Keynes and Philadelphia, PA: Open UP 1991) pp. 143-66.
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18. Esping-Andersen (note 10).
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20. T.J. Anton, Administered Politics: Elite Political Culture in Sweden (Boston, MA: Martinus Nijhoff Publishing 1980); E. Damgaard, P. Gerlich and J.J. Richardson, The Politics of Economic Crisis: Lessons from Western Europe (Aldershot: Avebury 1989); G.P. Freeman, 'National Styles and Policy Sectors: Explaining Structured Variation", Journal of Public Policy 5 (1985) pp.467-96; P.J. Katzenstein, Small States in World Markets (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell UP 1985).
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22. P.J. Katzenstein, Corporatism and Change (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell UP 1984); Katzenstein (note 19).
23. Hall (note 15).
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25. Katzenstein (note 21).
26. P. Gourevitch, Politics in Hard Times (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell UP 1986).
27. Katzenstein argues that one of the main virtues of corporatism is its ability to generate support for policies among all major constituencies by virtue of organised interest representation and participation in the making of policy. Thus, the key point here is that in the 'Katzenstein democracies', traditional corporatist arrangements are part of the problem as well as part of the solution. The combination of trade dependency and 'political style' which tends to make the currency susceptible to global speculation but which also is geared to ameliorating the problems they create for themselves is an interesting type of political economy in the context of nation-states' autonomy in globalised economy. Cf. Katzenstein (note 21).
28. G. Underhill, 'Introduction: Conceptualizing the Changing World Order', in Stubbs and Underbill (note 3).
29. G. Persson, Den som är satt i skuld or intefri [He who is in debt is not free] (Stockholm: Atlas 1997); A. Wibble, Tvâ cigg och en kopp kaffe [Two cigarettes and a cup of coffee] (Stockholm: Ekerlids Forlag 1994).
30. B. Sundelius and E. Stern, 'Sweden's Twin Monetary Crises of 1992: Rigidity and Learning in Crisis Decision Making' (paper presented at the Nordic Political Science Conference, Helsinki 15-17 Aug. 1996).
31. The Swedish prime minister was not alone in acknowledging this type of defeat by the market. Following the 'Black Wednesday' (16 Sept. 1992) in Britain - a crisis which shares several similarities with the Swedish experience - the British government decided to take the sterling out of the ERM. John Major believed this to be such a serious political failure that he seriously considered resigning from office, The Times, 7 Oct. 1997.
32. Sundelius and Stern (note 29) p. 16.
33. Charles Lindblom's (note 20, p.8) observation that 'much of politics is economics, and most of economics is also polities' had become the order of the day in Swedish politics. Given Easton's definition of 'polities', the market had clearly entered the sphere of politics: 'What distinguishes political interactions from all other kinds of social interactions is that they are predominantly oriented towards the authoritative allocation of values for a society ... An allocation is authoritative when the persons oriented to it consider that they are bound by it. [Easton (note 20) p. 50].
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35. Financial Times, 6 Dec. 1995.
36. J. Moses, 'Abdication from National Policy Autonomy: What's Left to Leave?', Politics and Society 2 (1994) p. 139; Streeck (note 4) p.310.
37. Krugman(note 16)Ch.4.
38. J. Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies (Boston: Little, Brown 1984).
39. Damgaard, Gerlich and Richardson (note 19).
40. G. Garrett, 'The Politics of Structural Change: Swedish Social Democracy and Thatcherism in Comparative Perspective', Comparative Political Studies 25 (1993) pp.521-47.
41. The Centre Party decided to discontinue its co-operation with the Social Democrats in late 1997 on the ground that the overarching objective of the co-operation - restoring the balance in the economy - had been attained. .
42. N. Poulantzas, State, Power, Socialism (London: Verso 1980) p.l 1.
43. R. Mishra, 'The Welfare of Nations', in Boy er and Drache (note 4) p.317.
44. I. Gough, The Political Economy of the Welfare State (London: Macmillan 1979); C. Offe, Contradictions of the Welfare State (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 1984).