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International Relations

SelectedWorks

Leonard Seabrooke

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Political Economy

‘What Do I Get? The Everyday Politics Of Expectations And The Subprime Crisis’, Leonard Seabrooke Jan 2010

‘What Do I Get? The Everyday Politics Of Expectations And The Subprime Crisis’, Leonard Seabrooke

Leonard Seabrooke

Were Americans who agreed to subprime loans stupid? This article suggests not, and that individual choices on home loans reflect a welfare trade-off steeped in social norms. These norms provide a range of choices for individuals’ intentional rationality, from which decisions can be legitimated among their social peers. To understand individual choices about taking on a home loan, such actions must be interpreted within the context of the dominant welfare trade-off within a society over how one ensures income over their life cycle. This can be understood comparatively and also over time. This article situates the American experience among other …


‘Varieties Of Residential Capitalism In The International Political Economy: New Politics In Old Welfare States’, Herman M. Schwartz, Leonard Seabrooke Jan 2008

‘Varieties Of Residential Capitalism In The International Political Economy: New Politics In Old Welfare States’, Herman M. Schwartz, Leonard Seabrooke

Leonard Seabrooke

Comparative and international political economy are justifiably obsessed with finance as a source of power and as a key causal force for domestic and international economic outcomes. Yet both CPE and IPE ignore the single largest asset in people’s everyday lives and one of the biggest financial assets in most economies: residential property and its associated mortgage debt. This special issue argues that residential housing and housing finance systems have important causal consequences for political behavior, social stability, the structure of welfare states, and macro-economic outcomes. The articles examine specific instances across a range of countries. This introduction has broader …


‘Seeing Like The Imf: Institutional Change In Small Open Economies’, André Broome, Leonard Seabrooke Jan 2007

‘Seeing Like The Imf: Institutional Change In Small Open Economies’, André Broome, Leonard Seabrooke

Leonard Seabrooke

The International Monetary Fund spends most of its time monitoring its member states’ economic performance and advising on institutional change. While much of the literature sees the Fund as a policy enforcer in ‘emerging market’ and ‘frontier’ economies, little attention has been paid to exploring the Fund’s bilateral surveillance of its Western member states. This article proposes that ‘seeing like the IMF’ provides a dynamic view of how the Fund frames its advice for institutional change. It does so through ‘associational templates’ that do not blindly promote institutional convergence, but appeal for change on the basis of like-characteristics among economies. …