Value and Power in Emergency Governance

The editors are Massimo De Carolis (University of Salerno) and Giso Amendola (University of Salerno).

Sovereignty, global economic governance and practices of self-determination

The debate on state sovereignty (and its crisis) has focused on the legal and political prerogatives of the state, first and foremost its acknowledged monopoly of political decision or, in Weber’s terms, of the legitimate use of force. Much rarer, however, has been the reference to another economic monopoly, which has always accompanied the modern state: the sole monopoly of issuing currency, accepted on its own territory for tax purposes as well as in exchanges between private individuals or in international transactions.

Since the second half of the 20th century, at least two factors have contributed to transform the picture, making a reflection on the link between political sovereignty and monetary sovereignty, and more broadly on the economic policy, inevitable. The first one has a specific date that coincides with the decision of the United States, in 1971, to definitively abandon the fixed convertibility of the dollar into gold, thus ending the global order established by the Bretton Woods agreements. The second factor is less circumscribed, concerning the growing centrality of economic instruments in the governance of society: an evolution we usually link to the “neo-liberalization” of society, but which has, in fact, a broad echo outside neo-liberalism in the strict sense (for example, in the policies of the “third way” or in the despotic regimes that have emerged in recent decades).

Needless to say, the relationship between political sovereignty and economic governance is a particularly sensitive issue for a kind of multilevel governance such as the European Union, which does not provide for a sovereign political authority despite the existence of a European currency, a European Central Bank and economic policy measures binding on all member states. Even outside the European context, however, an in-depth examination of this issue seems indispensable in order to re-propose a set of critical questions that have accompanied the evolution of modern nation states from the beginning: to what extent can we consider the sovereign state and the free market as two independent spheres and not rather as articulations of the same governmental device? Do public and private today correspond perfectly to the classic state/market distinction, or do the processes of transformation of the state – in particular the policies of privatization of the public sphere and of destructuring welfare – require a radical re-discussion of the relationship between state and public sphere? On the contrary, how to define those spaces of cooperation, which, even within the market, hint at practices of self-determination that reformulate the strictly private and proprietary definition of autonomy?

We ask to develop the reflection on sovereignty and government of the economy along three main thematic areas:

State and currency. A reflection on political sovereignty and government of the economy starting from the question of currency, and from the relationship between monetary policy and transformations of the state, between monetary policy and fiscal policy, between debt and currency. Very useful will also be interventions on the transformations of the social function of money, and on the trasformations of the relationship between money commodity, money as medium of exchange and money as measure of value.
Government of the economy and global order: transformation and/or decline of neoliberalism? A reflection on the government of the economy in the transformation of the role of the State (and in general of the Political) in the global order. Economic policy in multilevel governance, the redefinition of institutional relations between powers (and in particular the role of monetary policy and central banks in the new international order, with a specific yet not exclusive attention to Europe). The relationship between corporate governance, State and global governance in financial globalization. Global (prepandemic and pandemic) crisis and transformation of monetary and fiscal policies, transformation or crisis of neoliberalism and theoretical and political problems related to the theme of the (questionable) “return of the State”. Re-proposition of the economic planning issue.
Evolution of the relationship between the “personal” and “political” dimensions beyond the traditional dichotomies of private/public and market/state. Emergence of the effects of privatization of the public sphere and of broad processes of socialization within the market sphere itself. The development of state-independent social autonomies for example, the popular and informal economy in Mediterranean and South American metropolises. Reproduction as a crisis point of the productive paradigm and affirmation of new practices of economic policies. The crisis of contemporary welfare as a complex overlap of processes of privatization of the public and production of social autonomy and new practices of self-determination.
Topics:

sovereignty and money/monetary policy and fiscal policy/currency and value/money and social relations/multilevel governance and government of the economy/democracy, legitimacy and politics of central banks/ corporate governance, global governance and lex mercatoria/financial crisis, pandemic crisis and transformations of neoliberalism/pandemic crisis, “return” of the state and economic planning/public sphere and market/social reproduction and government of the economy/debt and sovereignty/money, debt and social reproduction/private autonomy, social autonomy and legal pluralism/welfare crisis between public space and social autonomy.

Soft Power invites submissions of articles of 6,000 to 6,500 words, including footnotes.

Philosophical, theoretical, historical and interdisciplinary articles are welcome. All articles are peer-reviewed using a double-blind peer-review process. Articles must be written in English or in Spanish. Abstracts and keywords must be in English as well as in Spanish in order to facilitate the inclusion in international databases and indexing services.

Papers (with Name, Title, little Abstract – max 20 lines – and Keywords) should be sent to info@softpowerjournal.com.

DEADLINES: Full Article must be received by January 31th 2021 (acceptance of the papers shall be communicated by March 15th, 2022).

For any further information: info@softpowerjournal.com