Political Theory Commons^™

The Global Governance Of “Good Governance”: Financial Regularization And The Construction Of Transparency And Accountability, Benjamin T. Tolosa Jr

Political Science Department Faculty Publications

“Good governance” has increasingly become political-economic common sense — often articulated in the call for transparency and accountability. But the question is: transparency and accountability to whom and toward what end? This essay examines the normalization of “good governance,” particularly as it is expressed as a financial discourse of corporate governance that gives primacy to the maximization of “shareholder value” and the promotion of “investor confidence” in the capital markets. I argue that this global discourse privileges institutional investors who are empowered to hold all stakeholders accountable to market expectations and valuations. While the discourse is clearly not socially neutral, …