Ethics and Economic Governance

This book seeks to explore the ethical dimensions of economic governance through an engagement with Adam Smith and a critical analysis of economistic understandings of the Global Financial Crisis. It examines ethical and political dilemmas associated with key aspects of the financialisation of Anglo-American economy and society, including systems of asset-based welfare, modern risk management and debt.In the wake of the financial crisis, recognition of the way in which everyday lives and life chances are tied into global finance is widespread. Yet few contributions in IPE explicitly tackle this issue as a question of ethics. By developing Adam Smith’s under-utilised account of how market-oriented behaviour is constituted through a process of ‘sympathy’, this book provides an innovative way of understanding contemporary issues of economic governance and the possibilities and limits for intervention within it. By taking Adam Smith’s moral philosophy seriously, it becomes evident that the ever-deeper enmeshing of finance in our everyday lives is a failed experiment.Turning the common understanding of Smith on its head, we can also turn accepted wisdom about the recent financial crisis on its head and see the urgency of making better known the ethico-political contestation that lies at the heart of financial market relations. It will be of interest to students and scholars of IPE as well as those across the social sciences who wish to question the foundations of contemporary economy and society.

‘At a moment when political economists of global finance are largely preoccupied with, and frustrated by, the post-crisis regulatory response, Chris Clarke’s original intervention looks to Adam Smith to bring ethical relations and everyday politics to the centre of critical inquiry.' - Paul Langley, Durham University, UK'Clarke’s original and important analysis shows how Adam Smith can help transcend the narrow economistic foundations of not just contemporary financial governance but also much IPE scholarship that overlooks the issues of ethics and moral philosophy that informed classical political economy.' - Eric Helleiner, University of Waterloo, Canada'This major new study demonstrates the richness and complexity of Adam Smith’s thought and its relevance to understanding the current problems of our political economy.' - Andrew Gamble, University of Sheffield, UK, ‘At a moment when political economists of global finance are largely preoccupied with, and frustrated by, the post-crisis regulatory response, Chris Clarke’s original intervention looks to Adam Smith to bring ethical relations and everyday politics to the centre of critical inquiry.' - Paul Langley, Durham University, UK'Clarke’s original and important analysis shows how Adam Smith can help transcend the narrow economistic foundations of not just contemporary financial governance but also much IPE scholarship that overlooks the issues of ethics and moral philosophy that informed classical political economy.' - Eric Helleiner, University of Waterloo, Canada'This major new study demonstrates the richness and complexity of Adam Smith’s thought and its relevance to understanding the current problems of our political economy.' - Andrew Gamble, University of Sheffield, UK

Chris Clarke is Assistant Professor in Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick, UK