Financial Globalization and the Anglo-Saxon Model of Capitalism: an Agency-Centered Approach to Study Financial Change

Abstract

This paper examines the main theoretical perspectives on the process of financial change in modern capitalism. It discusses institutionalist political economy approaches claiming that their conception of states, markets and financial innovation is problematic when analysing financial globalisation. In order to consider how the internationalisation of financial practices can be studied, this article suggests that a necessary step is that of firstly deconstructing the model of Anglo-Saxon capitalism as present in the literature. Whereas scholars have emphasised deregulation in the explanation of the development of financial practices, this essay emphasizes that in key respects their development in the Anglo-American core has been profoundly shaped by the actions and interests of state actors and at the end, it rests on a set of highly formalised set of institutions. This allows this paper to locate historically the peculiar American institutional roots of modern financial practices, focusing on the singularity of the social contexts in which practices emerge rather than studying finance solely in relation to the liberal nature of the state. After this, it proposes a theoretical framework to conceive the relationship between states and markets in international contexts from a historical agency-centred perspective.