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Rising Powers in Global Economic Governance: Mapping the Flexibility‐Empowerment Nexus
Author(s) -
Heldt Eugénia C.,
Mahrenbach Laura C.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
global policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.602
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1758-5899
pISSN - 1758-5880
DOI - 10.1111/1758-5899.12643
Subject(s) - flexibility (engineering) , nexus (standard) , empowerment , corporate governance , negotiation , argument (complex analysis) , economics , business , economic system , political science , economic growth , finance , computer science , management , law , embedded system , biochemistry , chemistry
Given long‐standing criticism of global economic institutions by rising powers, it is puzzling that these same governments supported the transfer of substantial resources and responsibilities to the IMF and the World Bank during recent reform negotiations. We argue rising powers’ support for international organization ( IO ) empowerment is linked to their concerns regarding an IO 's flexibility. We introduce two types of flexibility as being most relevant for rising powers. These include governance flexibility – the extent to which rising powers may participate in IO decision‐making – and issue flexibility – the extent to which rising power preferences are incorporated into IO policies and programs. We illustrate our argument by examining the preferences of the BIC states (Brazil, India and China) towards IMF and World Bank reforms between 2008 and 2012. Drawing on archival material with over 50 statements from BIC representatives, we find, first, that there were clear links between Bank and Fund governance flexibility and the BIC s’ support for empowerment of these IO s, but that this was not true for issue flexibility. Second, we find evidence indicating the strategies of individual BIC governments differ within these IO s, suggesting a need to undertake more differentiated studies of rising powers’ IO activities.