Central Banking as Global Governance: Constructing Financial Credibility(Series Number 109 Cambridge Studies in International Relations)

Money is a social convention, but with what social consequences? In this innovative study, Rodney Bruce Hall argues that those who govern the parameters of money's creation, its destruction, and its valuation are responsible for the governance of international finance. The volume is an analysis of central banking as global governance, employing the institutional philosophy of John Searle as a theoretical basis for exploring the consequences of money as a social institution, and the social relations of credit and debt. While previous studies in this field have made forays into the political economy of monetary institutions, this book breaks new ground by offering a constructivist social analysis that identifies the mechanisms of governance as social rather than material processes. The volume will therefore be of great interest to a wide range of scholars and students, particularly those with an interest in international relations, international finance and international political economy.

Table of Contents:
1. Central banking as governance; 2. The social character of money; 3. Instituting facts and constituting rules; 4. Constitutive power relations; 5. Rules and international monetary systems; 6. Central bank independence as credibility; 7. Transparency and intersubjectivity in central banking.

About the Author :
Rodney Bruce Hall is University Lecturer in International Political Economy at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University

Review :
'In this challenging and timely book, Rodney Bruce Hall develops an innovative social theory of monetary relations. The implications he draws for governance at both the domestic and international levels are provocative and very likely to stimulate productive debates. Central Banking as Global Governance deserves to reach an audience far beyond specialists.' Louis W. Pauly, Canada Research Chair in Globalization and Governance, University of Toronto 'With erudition and verve, Rodney Bruce Hall brings constructivism fully into the mainstream of political economy analysis of central banking. Monetary governance, he argues, is inherently social, based ultimately on relations of trust and collective assignments of authority. The book is both insightful and provocative.' Benjamin J. Cohen, University of California, Santa Barbara 'Central Banking as Global Governance is a masterly, path-breaking book. Rodney Bruce Hall's command of this complex material is impressive, even awe-inspiring. Most remarkable about the book is his ability to show how so many disparate social facts, practices, and organizations hang together to constitute the social underpinnings of contemporary financial markets. The practices of capital - of holders of capital, central banks, finance ministries, and rating agencies - are premised on shared meanings that, once institutionalized, are parametric. Hall's book brilliantly explains those parameters and how they have evolved.' Rawi Abdelal, Harvard Business School