Exploring Liberal Cosmopolitan Paths towards Global, Regional and National Financial Regulation (2008-2018): The Case of the European Union Financial Transactions Tax (EUFTT)

Following the 2008 global financial crisis, the failure of neoclassical regulatory/governance mechanisms and economic ideas, necessitated calls for the construction of new approaches that depart from the old accepted paradigm. Therefore, the thesis argues for a liberal cosmopolitan approach to regulate and reform the current arrangements guiding the global financial system. By considering the European Union Financial Transactions Tax (EUFTT) case study, the thesis goes beyond abstract theorisation and explores the viability of a liberal cosmopolitan approach towards global finance in practice. The thesis argues that the EUFTT is associated with liberal cosmopolitan concerns related to generating a regulatory turn, global redistributive justice and more convergence between national political economies. In mapping out the EUFTT policy process across 2008-2018, the thesis examines the major obstacles to implementation, and provides a multi-actor/multi-level analysis that reveals the representative attitudes and strategies embraced by EU/national policymakers and non-state actors. The thesis is guided by 46 qualitative research interviews conducted between 2016-2017 with a range of policymakers and non-state actors involved in the EUFTT project/process. Furthermore, by combining rationalist and constructivist methodologies through an actor centred constructivist (ACC) approach, I reformulate liberal cosmopolitanism by presenting a deeper account of agency, which is usually missing from most liberal cosmopolitan scholarship. Hence, the thesis argues that an ACC approach extends liberal cosmopolitanism by incorporating actors, interests, ideas and power into the analysis. The major findings of the thesis include uncovering an unheard aspect of the debate, insofar as baseline convergence existed among a diverse set of actors around establishing a global FTT that covered transactions involving shares. Nonetheless, a lack of leadership, divisive agendas, national market specialisations, divergent conceptualisations of FTTs, as well as the occurrence of new crisis moments were all key challenges for implementation of the EUFTT, and the advancement of ideas favouring FTTs in general. Moreover, the thesis argues that specific market identities, social representations and cognitive backgrounds influenced the views of policymakers, and non-state actors operating within certain political economies, on the EUFTT because actors in different countries think about capitalism differently. In turn, the thesis argues that this constrains/enables paths towards applying an (EU)FTT, and, by extension, other liberal cosmopolitan projects of this nature. This is a key lesson for liberal cosmopolitan scholarship, as the thesis argues that a practical and pragmatic path to reform is to endorse thin and narrow liberal cosmopolitan projects, outcomes and values as a first step, with the view that these can become thicker and broader over time. At the same time, national paths and measures, pursued by both policymakers and non-state actors, can also lead to the realisation of varying degrees of liberal cosmopolitan outcomes and values in practice.

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Thakore, Kavi

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hurt, Stephen
• Hesketh, Chris
• Rosenow, Doerthe

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/xb1t-8968

OAI identifier oai:identifier

tle:144e47b6-418f-4173-9bda-7d53bc595175:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1