Overview

How creditors came to wield unprecedented power over heavily indebted countries-and the dangers this poses to democracy The European debt crisis has rekindled long-standing debates about the power of finance and the fraught relationship between capitalism and democracy in a globalized world. Why Not Default? unravels a striking puzzle at the hea

Full Product Details

Author:   Jerome E. Roos
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
Imprint:   Princeton University Press
ISBN:  

9780691180106

ISBN 10:   0691180105
Pages:   416
Publication Date:   12 February 2019
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable  
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Language:   English

Table of Contents

Reviews

Why Not Default? is a must-read for all those wishing to truly understand the current challenges to democracy and social justice. In this meticulously and thoroughly researched book, Roos shows how the transformation in the global economy has resulted in the reconfiguration of both international and domestic power relations, producing a formidable set of incentives and constraints that compel nations to repay their debts even when the social costs are unbearably high. --Judith A. Teichman, author of The Politics of Inclusive Development: Policy, State Capacity, and Coalition Building The four decades since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods order (early 1970s) have seen a frequency of foreign debt crises at least twice as high as in the decades before 1914--yet with hardly any sovereign debt defaults, while such defaults were almost normal through the nineteenth century up to the 1930s. Why this dramatic change? Jerome Roos provides us with surprising answers, which explain why foreign investors in the contemporary era have been so confident of repayment despite the lack of effective legal enforcement mechanisms on indebted governments. As he does so, he breathes fresh understanding into the whole field of the political economy of international finance. --Robert H. Wade, London School of Economics This is a fascinating and timely book! It gives us a whole new perspective on the global debt crises since the 1980s. To understand why countries grind through under duress and the power of finance, we need to understand why struggling borrowers don't give up. Why do have-less countries continue to borrow despite the massive transfers to have-more countries and investors? This book offers brilliant insights. --Jeremy Adelman, Princeton University In this engaging book, Jerome Roos hones in on three mechanisms that militate against sovereign default: market discipline, policy conditionality, and national elites within the debtor country. The 1-2-3 punch of international banks, multilateral institutions, and domestic capitalists overwhelms tendencies to default, which is why default is such a rare event in the contemporary world. This book is an important contribution to understanding structural power in the international political economy. --Pepper Culpepper, University of Oxford This is an outstanding book. Roos demonstrates how the structural power of creditors has grown, enabling them to impose demands on countries regardless of political system, partisan composition, or the nuances of different interest groups. --Peter A. Gourevitch, coauthor of Political Power and Corporate Control: The New Global Politics of Corporate Governance

This is a fascinating and timely book! It gives us a whole new perspective on the global debt crises since the 1980s. To understand why countries grind through under duress and the power of finance, we need to understand why struggling borrowers don't give up. Why do have-less countries continue to borrow despite the massive transfers to have-more countries and investors? This book offers brilliant insights. --Jeremy Adelman, Princeton University The four decades since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods order (early 1970s) have seen a frequency of foreign debt crises at least twice as high as in the decades before 1914--yet with hardly any sovereign debt defaults, while such defaults were almost normal through the nineteenth century up to the 1930s. Why this dramatic change? Jerome Roos provides us with surprising answers, which explain why foreign investors in the contemporary era have been so confident of repayment despite the lack of effective legal enforcement mechanisms on indebted governments. As he does so, he breathes fresh understanding into the whole field of the political economy of international finance. --Robert H. Wade, London School of Economics In this engaging book, Jerome Roos hones in on three mechanisms that militate against sovereign default: market discipline, policy conditionality, and national elites within the debtor country. The 1-2-3 punch of international banks, multilateral institutions, and domestic capitalists overwhelms tendencies to default, which is why default is such a rare event in the contemporary world. This book is an important contribution to understanding structural power in the international political economy. --Pepper Culpepper, University of Oxford This is an outstanding book. Roos demonstrates how the structural power of creditors has grown, enabling them to impose demands on countries regardless of political system, partisan composition, or the nuances of different interest groups. --Peter A. Gourevitch, coauthor of Political Power and Corporate Control: The New Global Politics of Corporate Governance Why Not Default? is a must-read for all those wishing to truly understand the current challenges to democracy and social justice. In this meticulously and thoroughly researched book, Roos shows how the transformation in the global economy has resulted in the reconfiguration of both international and domestic power relations, producing a formidable set of incentives and constraints that compel nations to repay their debts even when the social costs are unbearably high. --Judith A. Teichman, author of The Politics of Inclusive Development: Policy, State Capacity, and Coalition Building

Roos has given us a thought-provoking book that will repay the investment of any reader with an interest in sovereign debt. ---Michael Reddell, Central Banking Journal

Winner of the Immanuel Wallerstein Memorial Book Award, Political Economy of the World-System Section of the American Sociological Association Roos has given us a thought-provoking book that will repay the investment of any reader with an interest in sovereign debt. ---Michael Reddell, Central Banking Journal

Why Not Default? is a must-read for all those wishing to truly understand the current challenges to democracy and social justice. In this meticulously and thoroughly researched book, Roos shows how the transformation in the global economy has resulted in the reconfiguration of both international and domestic power relations, producing a formidable set of incentives and constraints that compel nations to repay their debts even when the social costs are unbearably high. --Judith A. Teichman, author of The Politics of Inclusive Development: Policy, State Capacity, and Coalition Building This is a fascinating and timely book! It gives us a whole new perspective on the global debt crises since the 1980s. To understand why countries grind through under duress and the power of finance, we need to understand why struggling borrowers don't give up. Why do have-less countries continue to borrow despite the massive transfers to have-more countries and investors? This book offers brilliant insights. --Jeremy Adelman, Princeton University The four decades since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods order (early 1970s) have seen a frequency of foreign debt crises at least twice as high as in the decades before 1914--yet with hardly any sovereign debt defaults, while such defaults were almost normal through the nineteenth century up to the 1930s. Why this dramatic change? Jerome Roos provides us with surprising answers, which explain why foreign investors in the contemporary era have been so confident of repayment despite the lack of effective legal enforcement mechanisms on indebted governments. As he does so, he breathes fresh understanding into the whole field of the political economy of international finance. --Robert H. Wade, London School of Economics In this engaging book, Jerome Roos hones in on three mechanisms that militate against sovereign default: market discipline, policy conditionality, and national elites within the debtor country. The 1-2-3 punch of international banks, multilateral institutions, and domestic capitalists overwhelms tendencies to default, which is why default is such a rare event in the contemporary world. This book is an important contribution to understanding structural power in the international political economy. --Pepper Culpepper, University of Oxford This is an outstanding book. Roos demonstrates how the structural power of creditors has grown, enabling them to impose demands on countries regardless of political system, partisan composition, or the nuances of different interest groups. --Peter A. Gourevitch, coauthor of Political Power and Corporate Control: The New Global Politics of Corporate Governance

This is an outstanding book. Roos demonstrates how the structural power of creditors has grown, enabling them to impose demands on countries regardless of political system, partisan composition, or the nuances of different interest groups. --Peter A. Gourevitch, coauthor of Political Power and Corporate Control: The New Global Politics of Corporate Governance

Author Information

Jerome Roos is an LSE Fellow in International Political Economy at the London School of Economics. He regularly provides commentary on world politics and current affairs for various international media.

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