Can knowledge of financial policies in developing countries over four decades help the socialist economies of Asia and Eastern Europe become open market economies in the 1990s? In all these countries the loss of fiscal and monetary control has often resulted in high inflation that undermines the liberalization process itself. In the second edition of The Order of Economic Liberalization, Ronald McKinnon builds on his influential work on the liberalization of financial markets in less developed countries and outlines the progression necessary to move from a "repressed" to an open economy. New to this edition are chapters that contrast the gradual Chinese approach to liberalizing domestic and foreign trade with the "big bang" approach followed by some Eastern European countries and republics of the former Soviet Union. Financial control and macroeconomic stability, McKinnon argues, are more critical to a successful transition than is any crash program to privatize state-owned industrial assets and the banking system.

This book examines the dynamics shaping the economic process of economic liberalisation in Indonesia since the mid-1980's. Much writing on the process of economic liberalisation in developing countries views economic liberalisation as the victory of economic rationality over political and social interests. In contrast, this book argues that economic liberalisation should not be understood in these terms, but rather in the way that political social interests shape processes of economic reform in both a positive and negative sense. Specifically, Rosser argues that economic liberalisation needs to be understood in terms of the extent to which economic crises shift the balance of power and influence within society away from coalitions opposed to reform and towards those in favour of reform. In the Indonesian context, the main coalitions that need to be examined in this respect are the politico-bureaucrats and the conglomerates who have generally opposed reform and mobile capitalists who have generally supported reform. Based on extensive original research, and providing much new material, the book considers the politics of economic policy-making in Indonesia in a range of sectors including the capital market, intellectual property law, the banking industry, and the trade and investment sectors. Analysing why the nature of economic policy in Indonesia has varied over time, this study argues that there is nothing inevitable about a transition to a fully-fledged liberal market order in Indonesia, and outlines possible future scenarios for the country's political economy.

This book analyses the discourses of economic liberalization reform in six Western European countries – Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria. It provides systematic empirical evidence that policy-related discourses are much more than noise; rather, they are detailed expressions of institutional complementarities and political struggles. The author posits that the more open a discourse, the broader the range of perceived interests, which, in turn, increases the intensity of conflicts. Similarly, the more public discourse centres on coordination, the more intense actors need to engage with opposite interests, which most probably intensifies political disputes as well. Moreover, Wueest argues that the formation of a consensus within the political mainstream has left a vacuum for outsider parties such as Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain to feed on the contentiousness of economic liberalization policies.

Written by leading economists, the papers in this collection examine the different effects of trade and financial liberalization on the economic performance of Latin America and Asia. In the face of a deepening economic crisis in Latin America, the contributors examine the assumptions and dangers of indiscriminate economic liberalization policies which disregard the institutional arrangements or historical background of a country in the interests of narrower, more technical criteria such as speed of policy implementation. Addressing policy, conflict management, Asian and Latin American economies, and labor market institutions in Asia and Latin America, this study is an important contribution to the debate on trade and financial liberalization.

Annotation Local-level study of a rural Tunisian town that illustrates why market-oriented economic reforms have not necessarily led to politicl liberalization. Indiana Series in Middle East Studies Mark Tessler, general editor.

This book explores the process of economic liberalisation in Latin America and revises the transition from the import substitution industrialisation model to market-oriented reforms. It explains the theoretical foundations of the neoliberal paradigm and the implications of the policies that were labelled as the Washington Consensus. The book also incorporates an assessment on the socio-political norms added to the orthodox prescription, the so-called Post-Washington Consensus. The study comprises a general analysis on the subcontinent and on different economic liberalisation paths, and looks at four country case studies: Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, from the 1980s to recent years. From this approach, the reader can analyse weaknesses and strengths, the socioeconomic performance, and the difficulties that Latin America has presented through the turbulent process of economic liberalisation, both at an early stage and over the long run, by means of country case studies encompassing the most diverse and representative styles of economic openness in the subcontinent. This allows them to identify the challenges the country faces and the appropriate policies they can follow to cope with sustained economic growth, poverty reduction, and income distribution within an economically open environment. The study is carried out by analysing and contrasting theoretical and empirical perspectives, allowing a broader understanding of the topics. The book is complementary reading for textbooks, due to the objectivity with which it addresses important and quotidian issues in the region, associating empirical and theoretical topics, and facilitating the understanding of the international political economy of Latin America. It is also suitable for practitioners and researchers, because of the depth in which it covers specific topics and the useful analysis it conducts to incorporate policy implications and suggestions for achieving equitable growth in a context of liberal markets.