Financial Systems and Social Citizenship in American Political Economy

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Scholarship in American Political Economy has emphasized the distinctiveness of powerful organized financial interests and credit as a social policy tool complementing risk privatization in the U.S.. The papers in this panel contribute to this literature by emphasizing that, rather than being shaped solely by rent-seeking private interests or functioning only as a limited substitute for redistributive policy given constrained fiscal capacity, the American financial system also reflects a history of contested politics over financial access as vehicle for social inclusion, involving state-actors’ goals, interest group organization, and mass political behavior.

The presented papers demonstrate this theme across the history of American financial policy from the 19th century to the present: in the development of citizen mass savings in the public and private banking system as an instrument to achieve social goals and citizen socialization, in political contestation between coalitions of insiders and outsiders over access to credit as a mediator of residential and educational opportunity from the civil rights era to the financial crisis, and in sub-national policy choices about debt restructuring as relief measures in the wake of this crisis.

The panel’s contributions suggest both the existing perils and potential promise of the financial system and credit policy in American Political Economy. Historically, the U.S. Financial System has often exacerbated social exclusion and reflected the interests of the powerful few over the broad public. Nonetheless, re-imagining democratic inclusion can draw from political episodes demonstrating financial policy’s history and thus potential future as a politically-embedded realization of social citizenship rights.

Sub Unit

• Division 61: American Political Economy

Individual Presentations

• Mass Savings and Statebuilding in the U.S., U.K., and France - Ayelet Carmeli, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Opportunity Politics in the U.S.: Education, Housing, and Credit, 1945-2016 - Daniel Roberts, Harvard University

• Dilemmas of Debt Restructuring: State Interventions in the US Foreclosure Crisis - Angie Jo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• The Political Origins of “Financialization” in the United States - David Martin, Rutgers University, New Brunswick

• Beware the Fine Print: Consumer Arbitration as Legal and Regulatory Retrenchment - Sarah Staszak, Princeton University

Chair

• Mallory E. SoRelle Duke University

Discussants

• Alexander Reisenbichler University of Toronto

• Ayelet Carmeli Massachusetts Institute of Technology