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The road to financialization in Central and Eastern Europe: Revisiting the early policies and politics of stabilizing transition

Gabor, Daniela

Authors



Abstract

Early stabilization policies played an important part in the financialization of the formerly planned economies. The excess demand narrative, one of the least contested ‘problems’ of post-socialist transformation, structured central banks’ liquidity policies and thus redefined the relationship between the banking sector and (state-owned) production away from the long-term financing of capital investment. The hegemony of this monetarist account is linked to the lead financing role of the International Monetary Fund immediately after the collapse of socialism. To understand how international policy discourse naturalized a set of planned-system features that legitimized standard monetarist policy interventions, the paper seeks to politicize knowledge about socialist economies and embed its production within the institutional politics of international development interventions. If the excess demand narrative is treated as a contested account of the stabilization ‘imperative’, its role as catalyst for the financialization of the banking sector and the shift to impatient finance becomes apparent. An alternative approach to stabilization is further outlined, drawing on institutionalist conceptualizations of the role of money in capitalist production.

Citation

Gabor, D. (2012). The road to financialization in Central and Eastern Europe: Revisiting the early policies and politics of stabilizing transition. Review of Political Economy, 24(2), 227-249. https://doi.org/10.1080/09538259.2012.664333

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date May 1, 2012
Journal Review of Political Economy
Print ISSN 0953-8259
Publisher Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Peer Reviewed Not Peer Reviewed
Volume 24
Issue 2
Pages 227-249
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/09538259.2012.664333
Keywords monetary policy, stabilization, financialization, transition, policy narratives, international monetary fund
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/947590
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09538259.2012.664333