Global Regimes of Financialization

Since the early 1970s, the rise of financialization, or finance-led capitalism, has become the defining feature of the international economy, reshaping states, markets, firms and societies worldwide. Yet, this transformation has taken markedly different characteristics across countries and regions. This raises a key question: how can we make sense of the coexistence of systemic coherence and empirical divergence in financialization?

To address this question, the book advances a novel conceptual framework— Global Regimes of Financialization—, arguing that financialization operates as an integrated global system of asymmetric financial interdependencies among three regimes—Hegemonic, Dependent and Patrimonial financialization—in which national economies play distinct and complementary roles, and wield different forms of financial power. Drawing on historical analysis and comparative evidence from case studies of the United States and the United Kingdom, the European Union, Latin America, the Baltic States, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Russia and China, the book traces the emergence and co-evolution of these regimes from the origins of the modern global financial system to the contemporary era of polycrisis. By placing financial hierarchy, interdependence and diversity at the centre of the analysis, Global Regimes of Financialization offers a groundbreaking perspective on the evolution of global capitalism and the forces shaping its future.

This book will be of great interest to readers in comparative and international political economy, economic geography, and contemporary economic history.